A professional, licensed electrician is held to a higher standard than anyone doing electrical work without a license from the state of Virginia. You may consider hiring someone at a lower price, and cutting corners, but that can put your home and your family in danger. It just isn’t worth it.
When you hire a Virginia state licensed electrical contractor you know that your electrician is:
- Financially solvent: They aren’t going to be tempted to behave unethically because they have money problems.
- Experienced: With a minimum of four to seven years experience, and formal vocational training, your licensed contractor has the skills needed to do the job right.
- Has worked their way up through the ranks: A licensed master electrician has to have an additional year of experience as a licensed journeyman.
Inquire about licensing
Any licensed electrician has the basic skills necessary to make sure your electrical work is done correctly and safely. There is nothing wrong with hiring a journeyman rathern than a master electrician, if they have experience doing the type of work you need done. For large projects like remodels or new construction, make sure your team of electricians includes a master electrician.
Your financial well-being can be at risk
No matter how experienced someone is, they can still be injured. Accidents happen to all of us. And, if you are working with a contractor that isn’t properly licensed and doesn’t have the insurance that is only available to professionals with the proper license, you could be setting yourself up for a big fall. Your electrician should cover any damage to your home that occurs in the case of an accident. They also need to be able to cover their own expenses and those of their employees, should someone be injured on the job.
You want to know the job is done correctly
A licensed professional will be able to look at work that has been done in your home and almost immediately identify substandard workmanship and materials. They’ll tell you about the problems they encounter, because it is part of their professional responsibility to do so. Someone who isn’t properly trained may not understand that previous work is not up to par, and may just add to your problems. When substandard work remains unaddressed, it puts much more than your financial well-being at risk. It is just a fact. Electricity is dangerous. We want it. We need it. We rely on it almost every minute of every day. But handled improperly, it can be lethal. Don’t put that kind of power into the hands of someone who might not know what they are doing.
Don’t pile on
If you’ve had work done in the past by a handyman or someone else who isn’t properly licensed, and now you are having problems, don’t repeat the mistake. We see it a lot, and we’re just glad that our customers call us the second time around so that we can do the job right for them. If this sounds like your situation, in addition to having faulty electrical systems, you may also be in violation of building codes that your handyman didn’t understand or didn’t care about. It is important to get everything up to code, and a licensed electrician is the right person to do that for you.
Don’t get taken
You’ll always know how to reach us. You’ll know who is working at your home, when they will be there, and when they expect to have the job completed. Unlicensed workers, whether they are doing electrical work or other work around your home, may not be as reliable. And, you run the risk that they won’t show up at all.
Stay safe
As a result of years of experience and required vocational training, we are also safety experts. And our safety expertise extends well beyond how to handle electricity. We know what a safe work space looks like, and we make sure that you do too. A less experienced worker may not realize that a dog running around the house poses a huge risk to them while they are up on a ladder. They also may not realize that even the smallest electrical job done poorly can create life-threatening risk.
Give us a call here at Asbury Electric. We’re licensed, experienced, and locally owned and operated. We are based in Gloucester and have customers in Newport News
, Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, and the surrounding areas.
Call us for big jobs, small jobs and anything in between. We do our best on every single job, for every single client.
We’re also here for all of your emergency electrical needs. If you have an electrical problem and you think it might be an emergency situation, give us a call. Our phones are on 24/7 and we’re here to help.
