How to Find A Good Reliable Electrician and Who Should You Avoid

Have you ever wondered what exactly is up with finding a good reliable electrician? This informative report can give you an insight into everything you've ever wanted to know about finding a good reliable electrician.

Finding a good, dependable, and honest electrician is not always an easy task and this article shows who to look for and who you should avoid. It is important to hire a good electrician and I'm sure that you are like most of us homeowners that simply want the best work done for a competitve price. Notice that I didn't say the lowest price because the one with the lowest price may not be the best or right electrician to hire for the electrical work that you need to be done. The first place to look is to ask your family, friends, neighbors, or colleagues if they know anybody that they would recommend or if they know anyone you should stay away from. There's nothing like good old word of mouth advertising and if an electrician is a real good one or a real bad one someone you know has probably heard of them before.

If you can't get a recommendation you could try reading advertisements in your local newspapers for advertisements. It's ans easy as picking up your local paper and scanning the advertisements for electrical work being offered in the surrounding areas where you reside. A year or so ago I would have never recommended this option since most electricians that were any good were so busy they didn't have to resort to spending money on newspaper advertisement. However the times are a changing so some of them may have started using this method again to find clients and customers. Since all it cost is the price of a newspaper is not going to hurt to at least take a look.

The other options are using the yellow pages in your local phone book or online and doing a web search for electricians. These sources will produce alot of results but unfortunately just because someone has a nice fancy looking it doesn't guarantee that they are any good at performing electrical work. Some marketers can make anybody look and sound good. You may also find someone that has a very small ad but does all of their high quality excellent work themselve. You will also want to see if they state that they only specialize in certain types of work. Some of the large electrical contractors may only work on large commercial projects and not want to do any residential work. However in the economic challenges that we all currently face some of them may have turned to doing residential work as a means of survival. There again it doesn't cost anything to ask & if they're not willing to do it they probably know someone who will.

So by now you should at least have a couple of electrician names or even a list of names and it's time to hire one. How do you decide which one you should chose? Before you simply just pick one there are a few things you should check out or verify. The following are the things you should check at a minimum.

1. Do they have a license to perform the work? As we all should know from " Joe the Plumber " during the election campaign the individual doing the work may not be licensed but the company they work for should definitely have one.

2. Do they have liability and workman's comp insurance? Ask for a copy of their insurance certificates. Reputable companies should gladly give them to you.

3. How soon can they your job and how long will it take to complete? If you must have the work completed by a certain date make sure you get it in writing that they will be fully completed by then. State ( in writing ) that you will charge them back$100. 00 per day for every day they go over the completion date if it's critical to be done by then. You certainly don't want workers interrupting or disturbing guests that are coming to visit or your child's big graduation party.

4. Ask for three references ( names & phone numbers ) of similar jobs they recently completed and make sure you contact all three of them. Ask them if they were satisfied with the work and if they would use the company again in the future.

5. How long do they guarantee the materials that they use and how long do they guarantee the labor? Most materials will usually be guaranteed for at least a year but the labor may or may not be that long.
6. If the job is more then a few hundred dollars or a lot higher then what you were expecting ask to have the estimate in writing and compare the different estimates closely. Is one using a better grade of materials or doing more work then someone else?

7. What form of payment will they accept? Do they take credit cards and if so which ones? Will they accept a personal check? Some companies on large projects may want payment in the form of a cashiers check.

8. What are the payment terms? Do they require a deposit and if so how much? Never pay in full up front before they have done anything or before the job is fully completed to your satisfaction. If it's a large job that will take a lot of hours of work to complete the electrician may want progress payments at certain stages of completion and you should be prepared and willing to pay them in this manner. You need to protect yourself from getting taken by contractors, but on the same note contractors need to protect themselves from homeowners that will not pay for no reason.

So far, we've uncovered some interesting facts about finding a good reliable electrician. You may decide that the following information is even more interesting.

The above should have narrowed down the field and hopefully you still have some electricians left to choose from. However there are still a few other things you may want to check a little further in your selection process.

1. How long have they been in business? Someone just starting out may be the best electrician there is in your area but do they have enough capital behind them to survive in today's business climate?

2. Do they have a physical address that you can go and visit? Seeing how someone maintains their premises is often a good indication of the type of work they do. If their business looks sloppy there's a good chance that their work will look the same.

3. What condition is the vehicle in that they are driving? Is it neat and organized or does it look like a bomb went off inside it? The vehicle condition is a lot like the building question above and will be a good indicator of work quality in many cases.

4. Have they been in business before but under a different name? If yes what happened to the other business? Did they sell it or simply close up shop for some reason.

5. The only way you can contact them is by cell phone. They work out of their house and are not willing to give you an address or alternate phone number. A few years ago this would have been a disqualification, but now I don't think it should be automatic. If they work long hours and are never home to answer the phone there's no reason to give out the home phone number and a person does need some none work time. Just make sure to check their references thoroughly and maybe even ask for a couple more.

Now we are down to who you should avoid at all cost. The last thing you want to do is to spend hard earned money for an electrician that never even starts the job or never completes it to your satisfaction. Any one of them should be enough reason to decline their services and to hire a different electrician.

1. They demand payment in full upfront before they will even apply for the permit. This should need no further explanation.

2. They suggest it would be better if you pulled the permit as an owner builder ( this may not even be allowed in some areas ). Their license may not be current to pull the permit or they may have lost permitting privileges because they have too many permits that expired before being finalized or signed off.

3. The person that gives you the price states they can do the job for a lot less money on the side instead of going through the company they work for because the company charges way too much for their work. These types of employees usually don't last long, plus they usually do not have insurance and of course you no longer have the company's reputation to rely on.

4. They do not have any references that you can actually contact.

5. They are very vague on everything like cost, when they can start, and how long the job will take. They may not be very experienced or they may want to do your job has filler work and only work occasionally when they have time in their busy schedule.

6. They have been in business for years but under many different names. It's a sure sign of issues or problems when they have to change the company name every couple of years.

7. They do not have any or very little liability insurance. Granted in most cases this would never be an issue but if something does happen it could become a major disaster for you financially.

Ok, now you should be all set to know which electrician you should hire and which ones you should graciously pass on. As long as you follow the guidelines above your electrical project should turn out to be a major success!!!