Whether you’re a professional or a DIY junkie, it’s important to be fully educated on the task you’re going to be performing. There are many reasons for this. One, it’s the safe choice—you don’t want to take any risks around high voltage, because it’s fast and merciless. One slip up and you’re in shock city, and it’s not a fun place to visit.

Before you do any work anywhere in Pennsylvania, it’s required that you check with your local township or city officials to make sure that the task doesn’t require an electrician’s license. Many DIY “experts” will scoff at this and say that it will just result in them having to pay for an electrician. But, is that really a bad thing? As electricians, we’ve seen what can happen when things go wrong, and that’s why we offer our services: basically, it’s to keep people from electrocuting themselves.

Don’t Try to DIY, Hire A-1 Electric!!

Once you’ve decided to play it safe and smart, keep the following tips in mind.

Pennsylvania doesn’t offer “state licenses,” so if you hear an electrician say that they do, run away fast and don’t look back. Nearby New Jersey, Maryland and Delaware provide state licenses, but Pennsylvania doesn’t; mainly because those states are significantly smaller than Pennsylvania. These licenses require quite a bit of experience and training; for some people it’s a wake-up call to just how seriously complex electrical work is.

When you do bring an electrical contractor in, make sure you get everything in writing. Electricians are not allowed (at least in the state of Pennsylvania) to start any work without a contract and agreement, period. If you encounter an electrician, whether they’re building your home or fixing your air conditioner, and they don’t need some kind of contract or agreement to continue, you may want to question just how knowledgeable and qualified they are. These kinds of problems won’t ever occur at A-1 Electric—we guarantee it.

It’s okay to want your electrician to do extra work for you. Once you’ve gotten the ball rolling on a huge project, it’s easy to see things that you overlooked in the past while creating the design, and then want modifications on the spot. Unfortunately, electrical work is extremely intricate and requires a lot of planning. Good electricians should express that to their customers but aim to modify the agreement to accommodate the extra changes that the customer wants. In the world of electrical work, it’s a must to stick to the agreement and contract.

Electricians who don’t pay close attention to their agreements are setting themselves up for disaster. Always choose an electrician that treats your contract like the law, because it is. Put yourself in an electrician’s shoes; you just did some work that wasn’t on the contract, and something goes wrong—you’re now liable for acting outside of your contract, which is bad. You don’t want to ask for more than your contract outlines, true, but you also don’t want to accept less, either. That’s why you should only hire the most qualified electricians throughout Philadelphia.

Understand Conflict of Interest!

The last thing we want to touch on is conflict of interest. We’ve heard of it in politics, but what about in the world of electrical work? We’ll explain; in the state of Pennsylvania, and many other states, your electrical contractor absolutely cannot be the same person that does your electrical inspection. If you have a trusted contractor, someone who you know has your best interests in mind, and you want them to perform one or the other, make sure to set them aside for that, because they won’t be able to do both.

At A-1 Electric, we’re perfectly capable of performing both tasks, but legally we are bound to only perform one for each of our clientele. However, we could point you towards a third party inspector that we trust. Make sure you get the contracting and inspection services you need.

We hope this helped some people think before they went off to work on their own electrical project. Unless it’s seriously minor, you probably shouldn’t. If you’re not sure, call your local town or city municipal building and ask about the proper steps to take. If you’re still not sure, you can contact us at A-1 Electric – we definitely have an answer for you. Reach us today by phone throughout Pennsylvania at 800.401.6114.