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Just bought my first house. And first order of business is to get an electrician out there to do some work.
I am new to the state - do not know alot of people and therefore have a small base of people I can ask for referrals.
Which I will do...
My question is - how do I base my decision on selecting the electrician. What sort of questions do I need to ask, what should I be aware of?
Basically what we need done is to replace the electrical service box. How can I be sure that the price I go with is a fair price? I plant to get segveral, probably three estimates. Is that enought? Can I expect the estimates to be free? Any red flags?
Any and all advice would be appreciated.
Thanks for your time.
Three words: Licensed, Bonded, Insured. Check them out with the Registrar of Contractors to see if there have been any complaints, like wise the Better Business Bureau. That being said there are a lot of reputable electrical contractors and electricians who have slowed down because of the housing crunch and are looking for jobs to keep everyone working. I think in these high cost times that a fee for the estimate would not be out of line to cover the cost of the trip which would be deducted from the job price if you select them to do the work. Be clear on what you want done, be open to what they say about bringing things up to code. Changes to the main panel require this. Do not be surprised if the job is more entailed than you thought. By all means get at least two estimates. If the cost or requirements to bring everything up to code vary substantially, get the third estimate. Do your homework, take your time and take notes. Nobody can ball park this over a phone. Good luck.
jkochan,
Thanks for taking the time and giving such great advice.
I see that Registrar of Contractors is for Arizona - is there a similar agency for California?
Thank you again!
There should be something similar here--if you do some googling about contractor's licenses in CA you should find some info on who's in charge of that here. The other thing you can do is check http://www.diamondcertified.org or sign up for Angie's List http://www.angieslist.com and read reviews from people who've used the company before. These are both a good starting point, but you should still check with the BBB and make sure they have a valid license and check their insurance before you hire anyone.
When we lived in CA, we asked neighbors who they would recommend. The one we hired had been working in our valley for over 20 years - knew all the subdivisions, builders, etc. so was able to correct anything PDQ and for a fair price.
