Electrical Repair Tips to Save You Money

Needing a repair of an electrical nature done in your home is not generally cheap. This may prompt some people to decide that they will do their own electrical repairs. If you are thinking along these lines to save money then don’t! Electrical work has a great deal of safety issues connected to it and is not a job for the earnest fix-it man or woman. Just because you can repair other things in your home does not mean that you can make an electrical repair and can guarantee that it has been done properly or that you will not harm yourself in the process! 

Hiring a registered electrician is money well spent even if it costs you more than you were hoping it would! Before anything electrical breaks in your home you need to know how to get the most value for your hard earned dollars. 

One thing to do is to not become too concerned over the hourly rates charged by electricians. Yes the rate matters but what is most important is that you hire someone good who comes well prepared and is skilled at his trade. 

Most electricians charge in the range of $30 to $70 an hour. While you may groan (and your wallet may groan) at the thought of a $65 or $70 per hour electrician showing up on your doorstep, if the person is experienced and has all of the right tools and can get the job done quickly and efficiently then isn’t that better than hiring a $30 or $35 inexperienced individual who does not know his job as well? 

Consider the rate being proposed to you when you call but you also have to consider the reputation of the electrical repair company you are hiring, as well as the experience, work quality and equipment of the person who will be doing the actual work. 

To get the most value for your money you need to compare the travel charges for a selection of companies that you contact. The travel charges can play a large role in how much you pay in total. Find out how and what the firm charges and then figure out if it is reasonable for what your circumstances are. To give a hypothetical example of this, if your job is going to be on the long side then a low hourly rate and a trip charge would make sense. On the other hand if the electrical repair job is short then hiring the services of an electrician who charges a higher hourly rate but does not charge customers for travel makes more sense. 

As long as the repair needed is not an emergency if you bundle all of the smaller electrical jobs together at once then this will save you both time and money. Write up a list of the wiring work you need done as well as the electrical work and then call an electrician to come do the work for you all at once. Always be on the lookout in your home for potential problems of an electrical nature. This includes faulty switches and such things as outlets that do not work properly. Then add them to your list.