Aluminum Wiring in Toronto Homes: Repair, Replace, or Leave It Alone?

Aluminum branch wiring expands and contracts more than copper, which loosens connections at outlets and switches over time. Loose connections heat up. That is the whole risk in one sentence.

The connections are the problem, not the wire in the walls. That is why a properly done pigtail remediation - copper tails joined with approved connectors at every device - is an accepted fix and costs a fraction of a rewire.

A full rewire makes sense when the home is being gutted anyway, when circuits are badly overloaded, or when your insurer specifically requires copper. Otherwise remediation plus a written ESA-inspected report is usually enough to satisfy a policy.

Whatever you do, do not let a general handyman twist copper to aluminum with a standard marrette. That is the single most common cause of the failures the wiring gets blamed for.