The role of an electrical contractor is very critical in commercial, residential, and industrial installations. Any electrical malpractice, which usually happens when unqualified electricians carry out the wiring, upgrades, or repairs, may lead to serious accidents, fires, or deaths.
In an installation with proper wiring & protection, the system will isolate the issue effectively and eliminate most of the potential risks. This specifically works well as long as the electrician follows the best practices while in the process of complying with the relevant regulations and codes.
Considerations while hiring an electrical contractor
Apart from the qualification of the concerned electrical contractor, you will need to check his license and certifications. Also, you need to ensure whether he is an insured electrical contractor or not. He should necessarily have a good reputation, recommendations, and should be reliable. You can search them online to check their profile.
Ways of finding out an electrical contractor’s credibility and eligibility
You should necessarily verify if the electrical contractor meets all the professional, legal, and safety requirements. Hiring insured, registered, and qualified electrical contractors ensure that you are protected in your house. The good references from the past clients mean that the contractor is reliable and you can trust them. You can ask for some recommendations from your friends and relatives to choose an electrical contractor, or you can search them online and check their reviews to choose the best one.
You should necessarily pay attention to the following:
- Insurance and License – You should necessarily ensure that the electrical contractor you are considering to hire is insured and licensed. In addition to the same, they should have the worker’s compensation covers just in case injuries are occurring to the electrician during the project. You do not need to take their liability if they are insured.
- Work guarantee – The professional electrical contractors should have that adequate confidence in their work and will not have a problem giving a written guarantee. They can provide a limited period of warranty on their services. If you face any issue with your electrical system within this warranty period then you can claim a free service.
- The cumulative experience in the electrical field – The shortlisted company and its electrical contractors should necessarily have the relevant experience carrying out similar projects. The experience requirements may vary depending on the scope & also the complexity of the work. However, this is always advisable to settle on electrical contractors with at least three years of relevant experience.
- Availability – You necessarily need to find out about their availability. This is very crucial before and during the project duration since you may necessarily require them to be available for important discussions, change in plans, or updates on the progress.
- Documentation – You need to ensure that the electrical contractor will provide the documentation of the work carried out, together with the proper diagrammatic representations which any other professional can easily follow and understand. It is known as the electrical layout, and you can use this plan for maintaining your electrical system in the future.
- Cleaning up after the work is over – You need to enquire if the concerned electrical contractor will clean up the project area after the project is finished. The professional electrical contractors will always make it a point to clean up after the project when it’s finally over. They do this by clearing the scrap parts, debris, and all other dirt from your premises.
- Competitive pricing – There should be room for negotiation without lowering the work quality. You need to be careful that a too low quotation is a danger signal. This may result in poor workmanship.
Following the above checklist would surely enable you to choose the best electrical contractor.
