LA Knob and Tube replaces knob and tube wiring in Leimert Park, Hyde Park, Vermont Knolls and Manchester Square, along with the surrounding single-family streets of South Los Angeles. For knob and tube replacement in Leimert Park and the ZIP codes around it, the useful facts are unusually specific: the city’s highest rewire-permit rates, a large owner-occupied pre-war housing stock, no historic overlay zone, and a county boundary that changes who issues the permit.
Inside the city line, or outside it
Start with the address, because a Los Angeles mailing address does not settle jurisdiction here. Parts of 90043 and 90008 border or include unincorporated View Park-Windsor Hills. On the city side, permits come from LADBS and power from LADWP. On the county side, the permit comes from Los Angeles County Public Works, whose electrical code has adopted the 2025 California Electrical Code since January 1, 2026, and the California Energy Commission’s utility map places View Park-Windsor Hills in Southern California Edison territory.
That changes real steps in the job. The permit office, the inspection process and the service-upgrade path with the utility are all different across the line, so the parcel is checked before any paperwork. One more consequence affects the numbers on this page: Census Bureau ZIP figures include the unincorporated portions, while LADBS permit counts cover only city parcels. Rates and counts here describe the city side.
The highest rewire rates in the city
LADBS data for January 2020 to October 2026 show 90008 with 51.1 rewire permits per 1,000 electrical permits on one- and two-family houses, the highest of any ZIP code in Los Angeles. 90043 is third at 44.9. In plain terms, when owners here file electrical work on a house, it is a rewire more often than almost anywhere else.
The numbers need a careful reading. 90008 has a fairly young stock overall, with 18.6% of units built before 1940, so its rate reflects a high share of rewires among the permits filed, not a high count of old houses. 90043 is different: 126 rewire permits, 39.3% of units built before 1940, and 5,034 owner-occupied single-family houses from that era, second only to 90042 citywide. 90047 adds 106 rewires and 4,765 such houses. 90062 has the highest pre-1940 share of any ZIP code tested in the city, 60.3%.
What the permits describe
Most rewire permits never mention knob and tube by name, but a few here do. A 2023 permit in 90043 called for a new 200-amp main and “a complete rewire of all the old knob & tube wiring throughout the house.” A 2025 permit in 90062 reads “Replace prior outdated knob & tube.”
The first is a common pairing for a reason. Owners planning a heat pump, an induction range or an EV charger may need more service capacity, and if the branch circuits are original, the rewire and the panel are planned together so that one set of inspections covers the job. They are still separate scopes. A new panel feeds the house; it does nothing about the wiring inside the walls until those circuits are replaced. The panel upgrade page and the panel vs rewiring guide explain how the two are sized and priced, and the removal page covers what happens to the old conductors afterward.
Raised floors and layered changes
LADBS issued 441 cripple-wall retrofit permits in 90043 since January 2020, the second most of any ZIP code in the city, and 365 in 90047. Those permits exist only where a house sits on a raised wood floor over a crawlspace. For a rewire, that crawlspace is usually the main route to first-floor outlets, fed up through the floor plate with openings at the boxes. Where a retrofit is planned or recent, the crawlspace layout is checked so new bracing and new cable do not get in each other’s way.
Long ownership brings its own pattern. Where a house has been owned by one family for decades, small changes pile up: an added outlet here, a newer circuit for a window air conditioner there, a splice in the attic nobody remembers. The circuit map on the first visit sorts each run into live, dead or mixed, and that map is what the quote is built on. Insulation is part of the same attic check; California allows insulation over knob and tube only after a California-licensed electrical contractor surveys and certifies the wiring, which the attic insulation page explains.
No overlay zone
None of these four ZIP codes contains a Historic Preservation Overlay Zone. A new service mast or meter location is set by the electrical code and LADWP’s requirements rather than a preservation plan, which keeps service changes simpler than in neighboring West Adams. LADWP still verifies the meter location before a new meter panel goes in and needs the LADBS permit before its inspector visits.
Planning a rewire here
Once jurisdiction is confirmed, a city-side job follows a set order. LADBS issues almost every house rewire permit as an express permit without plan check, and the inspector checks the new wiring before walls are closed and again at the end. Circuits are replaced in sequence, so most of the house has power on most days, and routes run through the crawlspace and attic first. The quote lists every plaster opening and who patches it, which matters wherever walls are plaster and patching is a real part of the cost. The work is carried out by licensed and insured electrical contractors, and the replacement process guide shows each stage.
Insurance and sale paperwork
California FAIR Plan residential policies reached 1,122 in 90047 and 811 in 90043 by September 2025, up from 867 and 646 four years earlier. The figures show how many owners have moved to the FAIR Plan; they say nothing about wiring as the cause. When an owner later shops for regular coverage, a finished permit, a labeled panel and a written list of any remaining circuits make the wiring questions answerable, though carriers decide for themselves. Sellers face paperwork too: since January 1, 2026, California sellers must give buyers a prescribed statement about the electrical system. The insurance guide and selling guide cover both, and the cost guide breaks down a budget.
Neighboring West Adams and Jefferson Park shares the same community plan area but sits under several overlay zones. Mid-City and Miracle Mile has more duplexes, and Hancock Park and Windsor Square has larger houses and the Mills Act question.