Electrician: What to Look for Before You Hire One

Hiring an electrician can be one of the most important things you do in your home. Unlike a bad painter that can only make your home look bad- a bad electrical job can actually led to an undetected fire behind your walls that can cost you your life, your property and your home. This is one reason it is important to hire a licensed service provider and not attempts to do any electrical repairs or upgrades yourself. Electronics repair people are generally either journeymen or master electricians. A master will have his state license plus at least two years of experience and is qualified to plan, design, install and maintain an electrical system. If you are planning to do a major remodel or build a new home you may need a master to design your electrical system. A journeyman electrician is also licensed by the state and can do everything a master can do except design a system. 

When you are looking for an electrician you can usually get recommendations from friends, family or co workers who have used a contractor that they were pleased with. For any job of size you should get at least three to five bids in writing and you should ask some basic questions. Will the service provider guarantee his work? If something goes wrong will they come back out and look at it? Will they charge you a service call to do so? How much experience do they have and what is there area of expertise? 

An electrician with a good reputation should be willing to give you a copy of his state license and a copy of his insurance certification. They should also be happy to give you references to call about their quality of work.

You will need permits for any electrical work and yes that can cost you, but if there is a problem with the quality of work and you didn’t have a permit for the job to be done, your home owners insurance may use the lack of permit to deny a claim down the road. Plus it’s just smart business to operate under within the law, a permit buys the time and expertise of the city building inspector to inspect the job and make sure it is up to code for your own safety. Any electrician that wants you to do a job without a permit is not working in your best interest and you should not hire them.