Aluminum Wiring in Berks County Homes: What to Do About It

This post is for you if you've spotted "AL" printed on a cable in the basement, or a home inspector or an insurance agent told you the house may have aluminum wiring.

The wire itself isn't the danger; the connections are. Only three repairs count as permanent, and what you're after is a quote that names one of them. If the inspector already saw the wiring, you don't need to confirm it again. The jacket check below is for people who only suspect it.

How to tell whether your house has aluminum wiring.

Read the cable jackets. Wherever the cables are out in the open, in an unfinished basement, an attic or a garage, look at the printed or embossed markings on the jacket. Cable with aluminum conductors says "AL" or "ALUMINUM" on one side of the jacket every few feet. If none of the cable is visible, an electrician can make the call.

Read the whole marking, because one extra word changes the answer. If the jacket also says "CU-clad" or "Copper-clad", the wire is copper-coated aluminum, a different product, and not the problem this post is about. The wire that matters here is plain aluminum on the ordinary 15- and 20-amp circuits that feed your lights and outlets, the everyday circuits.

The years narrow it down. A copper shortage in the mid-1960s pushed builders to run aluminum on those everyday circuits, and that lasted into the mid-1970s. A house built before 1965 is unlikely to have it. A house built between 1965 and the mid-1970s may, and so may an addition or a circuit added or rewired in those years, even on a 1950s house.

One thing that isn't this problem: the heavy cable from the meter into the panel, and the thick cables feeding an electric dryer or a range. Aluminum was already normal for the dryer and range circuits before the shortage, and none of the repair advice below applies to those or to the service cable. A dryer cable that says AL is expected; it's the thin cables to the lights and outlets you're checking.

Why aluminum wiring is a problem, and where the problem is.

The problem is at the connections, not along the wire. Where an aluminum wire is screwed to an outlet, a switch, a fixture or a breaker, the connection deteriorates in ways that make it resist the current. Resisting the current makes heat, and the damage adds up over the years.

Homes built before 1972 and wired with aluminum were 55 times more likely than copper-wired homes to have at least one outlet connection reach fire hazard conditions. In that survey, fire hazard conditions meant a cover-plate screw at 300 degrees Fahrenheit, sparks from the outlet, or charred material around it. That figure counts outlet connections only. Switches, fixtures and the panel weren't part of it, and those connections can fail the same way.

So what would you notice? These are the signs:

• Cover plates on outlets or switches that are hot to the touch.
• Lights that flicker.
• Circuits that stop working.
• A smell of burning plastic at an outlet or a switch.

The catch is that a failing aluminum connection often gives no warning at all before it overheats, so a quiet house isn't proof of anything. If you do notice one of those signs, have a Berks County electrician find the cause. Don't open it up yourself.

Which Berks County towns have the most houses from the aluminum years?

About one in five of the county's homes, roughly 36,000 of about 172,000, went up in the 1960s and 1970s, the two decades that bracket the aluminum years. Here's how the houses from those two decades spread across the county's larger municipalities, keeping in mind that the Census counts the year a house was built, not what's in its walls, so a 1968 house may well be copper.

Reading has the most, about 5,700, but the share is the more useful number. A third of Cumru's homes date from those two decades, and three in ten of Spring Township's and Amity's do. The year tells you to look; it doesn't tell you what you'll find. These are the houses worth a ten-minute flashlight trip to the basement.

The three repairs that count as permanent fixes.

The federal Consumer Product Safety Commission's repair guidance accepts exactly three permanent fixes, and your quote should name one of them.

The first is replacing the aluminum branch circuits with copper. That removes the cause entirely. The old aluminum can be disconnected and left in the walls. It's the best fix and often the most expensive.

The second is COPALUM. A pigtail is a short copper wire joined to the end of the aluminum wire, so copper is what lands on the screw. COPALUM joins the two with a crimp connector, pressed on so hard by a special tool that the metals fuse, which is called a cold weld. It's rated a safe and permanent repair, and only electricians trained by the connector's manufacturer are allowed to install it.

The third is AlumiConn, a small set-screw connector that does the same job as the crimp. It's accepted as the next best alternative where a trained COPALUM installer isn't available. It performed well in testing but has a shorter track record.

Every connection counts. A proper repair reaches every outlet, switch, dimmer, light fixture, junction box and hardwired appliance on the aluminum circuits, plus the connections in the panel. A repair that only does the outlets isn't finished. If the panel itself needs replacing while they're in there, that's a separate job with its own price, covered in the post on electrical panel upgrade cost in Berks County.

What doesn't count as a repair.

Three things get offered as a fix and aren't one. The first is a pigtail made with an ordinary twist-on wire nut. In testing, many of them overheated badly, and a wire-nut pigtail can end up worse than the connection it was meant to fix. The second is a crimp connector from the hardware store, squeezed on with pliers instead of the tool that makes the cold weld.

The third is outlets and switches stamped CO/ALR, made to tolerate aluminum better than ordinary devices. They still failed in lab tests, and they can't be used on fixtures or appliances, so at best they're an incomplete repair. There's one exception. On a single connection that has already failed, an electrician may use a twist-on connector made for aluminum-to-copper (marked AL/CU) or a CO/ALR device as an emergency stopgap, and only until the permanent repair is done.

This is why the word "pigtailing" on its own tells you nothing. A quote that says "pigtail all outlets" and names no connector could mean a cold-welded crimp or a wire nut. The connector is what matters, so the quote should name it, and if it doesn't, ask.

What the repair costs in Berks County.

As of 2026, replacing the wiring with copper runs about $3 to $5 per square foot, so roughly $6,000 to $10,000 for a 2,000-square-foot house. For your own house, multiply the square footage by $3 to $5, and expect a firm number only after an electrician has walked it. What electricians charge per hour in Berks County is its own post; here the numbers are for the whole job.

The size of a COPALUM or AlumiConn job is the number of connections, since every one of them has to be done, so the electrician has to see the house before quoting. Two quotes that name the same connector are the way to compare, and the county's electricians page is where to start collecting them.

Permits, and what to tell your insurance agent.

Pennsylvania's construction code requires a permit to alter, repair or replace the wiring in a house, and it exempts ordinary repairs; which side a connector-by-connector job falls on is decided by your town's building code office. A full copper rewire always gets a permit. Kutztown's permit sheet, for one, requires a permit for any repair or replacement of wires and exempts swapping an outlet, switch or light fixture for the same kind, so a connector job there needs one. Ask the electrician what your town wants. Whether a job needs an electrician at all is its own post.

On insurance, whether an insurer writes a policy on a house with aluminum branch wiring is that insurer's own decision. So ask your agent before renewal or before you buy, and if you don't have one, the county's insurance agents and brokers page is where to find one.

Pennsylvania does set rules for how a carrier can cancel or drop a policy on the house you live in once it has been in force 60 days. If you ever receive a notice of cancellation or refusal to renew, it must give you at least 30 days, it must state the specific reason clearly and completely, and it must tell you that you can ask the Pennsylvania Insurance Department to review it within ten days of receiving the notice. If you've had the repair done, have the paperwork and the permit ready when you talk to your agent. Filing a claim is a separate question; this one is about staying insured.

So here's what I'd do tonight. Go read the jackets on the thin cables in the basement, and skip the dryer cable. If they say AL and not CU-clad, call two electricians, ask each one to count the connections, and ask each one to name the connector or the copper rewire on the quote. Our guide to hiring home services in Berks County covers the rest of what to ask.

Frequently asked questions.

Is aluminum wiring safe to live with?

The wire in the wall isn't what fails; the connections are, and they deteriorate slowly and often without warning. Homes built before 1972 with aluminum were 55 times more likely than copper-wired homes to have at least one outlet connection reach fire hazard conditions. So it isn't an emergency tonight, but it isn't something to leave alone either.

What years were houses wired with aluminum?

The mid-1960s copper shortage is when builders started running aluminum on the ordinary lighting and outlet circuits, and it lasted into the mid-1970s. A house built before 1965 is unlikely to have it. A house, an addition, or a circuit added or rewired between 1965 and the mid-1970s may.

Does pigtailing fix aluminum wiring?

Only two kinds of pigtail count: a COPALUM crimp made with the manufacturer's tool, or an AlumiConn set-screw connector, on every connection including the panel. A pigtail made with an ordinary wire nut isn't a fix. Ask the electrician to name the connector on the quote.

Should I rewire with copper or use the connectors?

Copper removes the cause entirely and is the best fix, and it's often the most expensive. The connector repairs cover every connection, so the answer for your house comes from two quotes that name the same method. Either one counts as permanent; a wire nut doesn't.