What electrical grounding involves

The service is where the building meets the grid. Everything else is downstream. The work starts with finding out what is actually there. With electrical grounding, that means looking at the existing wiring, the panel capacity and whatever the last person left behind.

It starts with a look at the panel and the circuits involved. From there we tell you what has to be done, what can wait and what was never a problem at all.

Where this comes up

Services, switchgear, transformers and the distribution behind the meter. Most of these calls come from Des Plaines and the surrounding suburbs, but we take them anywhere in our service area.

It comes up most during a remodel. The walls are open, the old wiring is right there, and it is the cheapest moment the building will ever give you to fix what is behind them. Once the drywall is back, the same repair costs more.

How we do it

The electrician who quotes the job comes from the same crew that does it. We work to the current code, test every circuit before we leave and label the panel so the next person can read it.

What we see go wrong

Most of the bad work we find was not done by an electrician. It was a handyman, a previous owner or somebody who watched a video. Backstabbed outlets, undersized conductors, missing grounds, neutrals and grounds bonded in a subpanel, junctions buried inside a wall with no box.

None of that is visible from the living room. It surfaces during a remodel, a home inspection, or the day a breaker stops holding.

What happens when we are done

You will not find offcuts in the attic or a panel cover left leaning against the wall. When we finish, the circuits are tested and labeled in the panel and the space is clean. If you have questions about anything we did, ask before we pull away.

Where a permit was pulled you get the closed inspection. Where documentation exists, you get it.

The inspection is the point

An inspection is an independent check that what went behind the drywall matches what was supposed to. Work that passes has been verified by somebody with no stake in the invoice.

That is also why we would rather you hire a licensed contractor than the cheapest number you can find. Unpermitted electrical work is a problem you inherit, and it usually surfaces at the worst moment.

Materials and why they matter

Devices are not all the same. A fifty-cent backstabbed outlet holds the conductor with a spring clip; a commercial-grade one clamps it under a screw plate. The second kind is a couple of dollars more and it is the reason the connection is still tight in fifteen years.

We use commercial-grade devices as standard. It is a small share of the job cost and it is the part most likely to fail if you go cheap on it.

What to do before we arrive

If there is a burning smell and you can safely reach the panel, shut off the affected circuit. If you cannot identify it, shut off the main. Do not run extension cords from another circuit as a workaround, especially for anything that heats.

Tell us what was plugged in when it happened and roughly what time it was. The more specific you are, the faster we find it.

Service size is a ceiling on everything

The service is the limit every other circuit lives under. A 100-amp service was generous when houses had one air conditioner and a gas range. Add electric cooking, a heat pump, a car charger and a finished basement and it stops being enough.

Upgrading means coordinating with ComEd, replacing the meter socket and mast, and sizing the new panel for what the building will need in ten years rather than exactly what it needs today.