The number of electricians in a city the size of Sydney or Melbourne number in the dozens. Almost every area of these cities have at least a dozen electricians if not more. However, the problem that many people face is that they are not sure which of these electricians are really good. Some people just hire an electrician after pulling out a number from the yellow pages. That said even though this may be the fastest way to hire an electrician it is certainly not the best. If anything hiring an inexperienced electrician can end up costing you a lot more in the long term because the installations will not last as long, plus there is always this chance of things going wrong like a short circuit for instance. The good news is that if you know what to look for hiring a professional is a lot easier and quicker.
The electrician should be qualified
You should never hire an electrician who has not received a proper education in electronics. However, many if not all electricians will come across as being people who have received a good education and were at the top of their degree class but few have the documents to prove it. Working on domestic or commercial electric wiring is a dangerous business and you don’t want to trust someone who does not prove that he or she has received an education. The easiest way is to ask for a copy of their degree, so that you can see for yourself if indeed they are qualified prior to considering them any further for your project.
Hire a company not an individual
Individual or freelance electricians are a dime a dozen in Australia and around the world. However, the problem with these people is that they are not accountable for anything that goes wrong. You cannot simply sue them or ask them to give your money back because they may simply decide to catch the next flight to another city. However, when you work with an established company that has been providing this service for a while they will not undermine their services’ credibility by doing a bad job or hiring electricians who are not capable. With a company if anything does go wrong you know exactly whom to hold accountable.
The company should be licensed
This is probably a common sense tip but many people fail to check if the electrician is licensed. A good company will have no problem displaying their license number both at their physical location as well as if they have a website. Never trust a company that does not display their license, it often means that they have something to hide. Many fly by night operations are not licensed but they try to cover that up by offering dirt cheap rates which later ends up costing people twice as much.
Ask for references
You should not hire an electrician who cannot provide you with solid references. Ask the electrician you are considering to provide you with references of people they have worked for on similar projects in your area. You should then call up these references and verity if the job done by the electrician was satisfactory. Many times services think that people will not call their references and so they may provide irrelevant numbers. If all the numbers you call are disconnected chances are that the electrician is trying to con you.
Always get quotes
You should always be considering more than one electrician at a time. The final step in most cases should be to get a quote from each of the electricians you are considering. The quote should detail exactly what they will do and how much it will cost. It should also include any taxes. http://www.speedyelectricals.com.au suggests that people settle on quotes that only mention using high quality materials because many times a quote may have low quality materials quoted just to lower the overall price. Regular people may not notice this, which is why it is important to do a bit of research online to find out more about the materials that will be used. This will save you from subsequent replacements later on and obviously spending a lot more than you should.
Featured images:
- License: Royalty Free or iStock source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Electrician_Working.jpg
- License: Royalty Free or iStock source: http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2752408
Mark has been an electrician for over two decades. He is not just a qualified electrician but has also taught electricians over the years. In addition to providing high quality electrical services he also consults on large projects where the slightest mistake can cost millions. His advice to people is to always do their research prior to hiring any electrician.