The process of getting the house wired, by a licensed electrician has been full of learning. So, here is the best explanation of the process I can give;
First, I hired a guy I knew, that happens to be the Chief Electrician at a large corporation. He was great. Gave me lots of free advice and pieces of wisdom. He came and checked out the house and gave me some insights about what I would have to deal with and how to manage the process. He was super helpful. One of the things he told me right away, you have to get a "Temp Pole" and get power to the place.
I agreed.
I called the local power company and they told me I'd need to pull a permit from the city. So I called the city permit office and they said that in order to pull the permit you must be an electrician licensed with the city, which my friend is not. So we reached out to a friend of his to see if we could get someone to "vouch" for us.
In the mean time, Electrician No. 1 built the temp pole (it is in one of galleries below) to the precise specs given us by the city electrical inspector.
Now, Electrician No. 2 comes into the picture, albeit rather briefly, he says that he is willing to help, would be glad to look at the temp pole and get it powered, but would also like to bid the job in totale. I am happy to have someone that wants the job, is known by Electrician No. 1 and can be a more dedicated presence at the house. However, over the next 5 days he is unavailable, our schedules don't match or his truck breaks down. I take this as a sign to move on.
Enter, Electrician No. 3 - I found him on Angie's List, he showed up on time, he seemed to know what he was talking about and he said he'd be in touch with a quote. He only made one sour comment about how, "some electricians wouldn't even take this job," but whatever, I guess I was lucky to have him.
And then he came back at about twice the amount I thought I should pay (this is somewhat obtuse since I don't have a lot of whole-house wiring experience, but still, I listened to my gut).
Enter Electrician No. 4 - This guy was definitely more of a character. He kind of busted on my friend (Electrician No. 1) and tried to poke holes in his work. He continually propped himself up on the fact that he had a city license which is, "extremely difficult to get." Other than the fact that I could have used sub-titles for his thick accent and these few derogatory comments, he seemed fine. He also said that they could get to work right away and would be back in touch with an estimate. I didn't hear from him for the next two days.
Rather than just wait for his estimate I decided it best to have a backup plan.
Enter Electrician No. 5 - this was a big company. They do the electrical work on major construction projects. I was not sure what I was getting into, but I figured it was worth taking a stab at it. The account manager showed up, was polite, professional and on-time. He walked the property and was helpful, positive and friendly. He even mentioned that he had looked at the property before I bought it and considered buying it himself. He knew the area and process for everything we'd need to do to get power reestablished. He left and called back a couple of hours later with a "not to exceed" price (which I have NEVER heard of). The price was reasonable and they could get to work right away.
Before I make a decision though - I thought I should call Electrician No. 4 back just to complete my due diligence - upon answering the call he went right into a long explanation about his license (or lack thereof) and the fact that "the feller" with the license...blah, blah, blah...something about a payday loan and the high cost of Christmas, the new year, the damn city licensing fee... TL;DR - he doesn't even have a city license!
I called back Electrician No. 5 and hired them - the next day they demoed the old wires and began running the new wire. By end of day 2 they had the recessed lighting fixtures installed and most of the wires run throughout the house. The power goes on today or tomorrow and not a moment too late. Lots going on over the next two weeks.
Lesson learned, sometimes it's just better to go with a known entity - I won't divulge the names of any of the electricians I didn't use, but McGaha is the company I am using. Top notch so far.
First, I hired a guy I knew, that happens to be the Chief Electrician at a large corporation. He was great. Gave me lots of free advice and pieces of wisdom. He came and checked out the house and gave me some insights about what I would have to deal with and how to manage the process. He was super helpful. One of the things he told me right away, you have to get a "Temp Pole" and get power to the place.
I agreed.
I called the local power company and they told me I'd need to pull a permit from the city. So I called the city permit office and they said that in order to pull the permit you must be an electrician licensed with the city, which my friend is not. So we reached out to a friend of his to see if we could get someone to "vouch" for us.
In the mean time, Electrician No. 1 built the temp pole (it is in one of galleries below) to the precise specs given us by the city electrical inspector.
Now, Electrician No. 2 comes into the picture, albeit rather briefly, he says that he is willing to help, would be glad to look at the temp pole and get it powered, but would also like to bid the job in totale. I am happy to have someone that wants the job, is known by Electrician No. 1 and can be a more dedicated presence at the house. However, over the next 5 days he is unavailable, our schedules don't match or his truck breaks down. I take this as a sign to move on.
Enter, Electrician No. 3 - I found him on Angie's List, he showed up on time, he seemed to know what he was talking about and he said he'd be in touch with a quote. He only made one sour comment about how, "some electricians wouldn't even take this job," but whatever, I guess I was lucky to have him.
And then he came back at about twice the amount I thought I should pay (this is somewhat obtuse since I don't have a lot of whole-house wiring experience, but still, I listened to my gut).
Enter Electrician No. 4 - This guy was definitely more of a character. He kind of busted on my friend (Electrician No. 1) and tried to poke holes in his work. He continually propped himself up on the fact that he had a city license which is, "extremely difficult to get." Other than the fact that I could have used sub-titles for his thick accent and these few derogatory comments, he seemed fine. He also said that they could get to work right away and would be back in touch with an estimate. I didn't hear from him for the next two days.
Rather than just wait for his estimate I decided it best to have a backup plan.
Enter Electrician No. 5 - this was a big company. They do the electrical work on major construction projects. I was not sure what I was getting into, but I figured it was worth taking a stab at it. The account manager showed up, was polite, professional and on-time. He walked the property and was helpful, positive and friendly. He even mentioned that he had looked at the property before I bought it and considered buying it himself. He knew the area and process for everything we'd need to do to get power reestablished. He left and called back a couple of hours later with a "not to exceed" price (which I have NEVER heard of). The price was reasonable and they could get to work right away.
Before I make a decision though - I thought I should call Electrician No. 4 back just to complete my due diligence - upon answering the call he went right into a long explanation about his license (or lack thereof) and the fact that "the feller" with the license...blah, blah, blah...something about a payday loan and the high cost of Christmas, the new year, the damn city licensing fee... TL;DR - he doesn't even have a city license!
I called back Electrician No. 5 and hired them - the next day they demoed the old wires and began running the new wire. By end of day 2 they had the recessed lighting fixtures installed and most of the wires run throughout the house. The power goes on today or tomorrow and not a moment too late. Lots going on over the next two weeks.
Lesson learned, sometimes it's just better to go with a known entity - I won't divulge the names of any of the electricians I didn't use, but McGaha is the company I am using. Top notch so far.
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