Homes built between 1965 and 1973 across Red Bank and Monmouth County were often wired with aluminum instead of copper. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission found these homes are 55 times more likely to have connections reach fire hazard conditions. The wire itself isn’t the problem — it’s every outlet, switch, and fixture where aluminum meets copper. After 50+ years, those connections loosen, overheat, and fail.
Lucky for you our expert electricians have been remediating and replacing aluminum wiring across Red Bank and nearby areas since 1996!
If your Monmouth County home was built between 1965 and 1973 — or you’re buying, selling, or insuring one — an aluminum wiring inspection gives you a clear picture of what’s in your walls and what, if anything, needs to be done about it.
We inspect every accessible connection point, assess wire condition, document our findings, and provide a straightforward recommendation: remediate, rewire, or leave it alone. No pressure. No unnecessary upselling. If your wiring is fine, we’ll tell you.
Call (732) 851-8487 or fill out the form below to schedule your free, no-obligation consultation. One of our licensed electricians will be out same-day to inspect for any aluminum wiring!
Call Us Directly: 732-851-8487!
A typical home has 200 or more electrical connections — every outlet, every switch, every light fixture, every junction box, every breaker. In a copper-wired home, these connections stay tight and stable for decades. In an aluminum-wired home, three properties of the metal work against you at every single one of those connection points.
Aluminum expands and contracts significantly more than copper when it heats and cools during normal use. Every time you flip a switch or plug in an appliance, the wire heats slightly. Over thousands of cycles, the connection loosens. Electricians call this "creep" — the slow, invisible backing-out of wire from terminal screws.
When copper corrodes, the oxide that forms still conducts electricity. When aluminum corrodes, it forms aluminum oxide — a compound that resists electrical current. That resistance generates heat at the connection. More heat means more oxidation. More oxidation means more resistance. It's a cycle that accelerates over time.
Most outlets, switches, and fixtures installed during the aluminum wiring era were designed for copper. When aluminum contacts copper or brass terminals, a galvanic reaction occurs that degrades the connection. The metals are chemically incompatible without a proper barrier between them.
These three factors compound each other — and they’ve been doing so in affected homes for over 50 years. The connections that fail don’t always announce themselves. The CPSC noted that failing aluminum connections can reach dangerously high temperatures while still appearing to function normally. The circuit works. The lights turn on. The outlet has power. But behind the cover plate, the connection is glowing.
Our teams are fully licensed and insured, handling your aluminum wiring replacement from start to finish. Having completed over 25,000 jobs, we ask you to look at our reviews and hear what your neighbors are saying!
You can often confirm aluminum wiring yourself without calling an electrician or opening a wall, though we typically recommend giving us a call as we can confirm it during a quick inspection, and if aluminum is found, we can assess every accessible connection in the home and give you a clear list of options on how to rewire it with new wiring.
Go to your electrical panel, attic, basement, or crawl space — anywhere you can see exposed wiring between the panel and the walls. Look at the outer plastic sheathing of the cable. Aluminum branch circuit wiring will be marked with "AL," "ALUMINUM," or "ALUMINUM ALLOY" printed along the jacket. Some cables may also read "CU-clad" or "Copper-clad," which indicates copper-coated aluminum — also a concern.
If you can see exposed conductor (at the panel or an open junction box), aluminum wire has a distinct silvery-white color. Copper is unmistakably reddish-orange, even when tarnished.
Homes built or substantially remodeled between 1965 and 1973 are in the risk window. In Monmouth County, that covers a huge swath of the housing stock — particularly the subdivisions built during the late-60s and early-70s boom in Middletown, Holmdel, Hazlet, Tinton Falls, Colts Neck, Wall Township, and parts of Eatontown and Ocean Township.
Aluminum branch circuit wiring is typically 12 AWG (for 15-amp circuits) or 10 AWG (for 20-amp circuits). It's noticeably thicker than equivalent copper wire because aluminum requires a larger diameter to carry the same current safely.
Aluminum wiring problems often develop silently over decades. But when connections begin to fail, your home may give you warnings:
If a cover plate feels warm to the touch — even when nothing is plugged in or the switch is off — the connection behind it is overheating. This is not normal and requires immediate attention.
Brown or yellow discoloration around the slots of an outlet, or deformed plastic on a switch, indicates sustained high temperatures at the connection.
Lights that dim or flicker — particularly when no other appliance is cycling on — can indicate a loose aluminum connection at the fixture or switch.
A faint smell of hot plastic or burning near outlets or switches is a critical warning sign. If you smell this, stop using that circuit and call an electrician.
An outlet or switch that works sometimes and doesn't other times often has a connection that has loosened to the point of intermittent contact.
If you notice any of these in a home built between 1965 and 1973, don’t open the outlet yourself. Call a licensed electrician experienced with aluminum wiring. The connections can be fragile — aluminum wire that has been subjected to decades of thermal cycling can break off when disturbed.
During our inspection, if we find any aluminum wiring our electrician will offer two different options depending on the extent of the findings. Its also worth noting that in homes where aluminum wiring is found, most are running an outdated electrical panel or worse a FPE / Zinsco panel. Both of which we provide replacements for.
AlumiConn connectors are CPSC-approved set-screw lug connectors that create a permanent, code-compliant junction between your existing aluminum wire and a short copper pigtail. The copper pigtail then connects to your outlet, switch, or fixture — so the device is always terminating on copper, not aluminum.
Each connector uses a tin-plated aluminum block with separate ports for the aluminum and copper wires. The two metals never touch directly, which eliminates galvanic corrosion. The connectors come pre-filled with antioxidant compound to prevent aluminum oxidation at the connection point.
Why we recommend AlumiConn for most homes: It's the most cost-effective permanent solution. It doesn't require proprietary tools or specialized certification — any licensed electrician experienced with aluminum wiring can install them properly. The CPSC has approved AlumiConn as a permanent repair, and since their introduction, there have been zero reported connection failures.
What's involved: We open every outlet, switch, fixture, and junction box in your home. At each connection point, we attach an AlumiConn connector to the existing aluminum wire, pigtail it to copper, and reconnect the device. We also inspect every connection we access for signs of overheating, damage, or deterioration.
Removing all aluminum branch circuits and replacing them with modern copper NM-B cable. This is the most complete and most permanent solution — but also the most expensive and most disruptive.
When we recommend a full rewire instead of remediation:
