What generator testing involves

Most electrical emergencies were visible months earlier. The work starts with finding out what is actually there. With generator testing, 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

Inspections, preventive maintenance and emergency repairs around the clock. 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

Quik Wire Electric has 3 years in business and 10 years of electrical experience behind it. The work goes in to code, gets tested and comes with a 100% satisfaction guarantee.

Why this is worth doing properly

Electrical problems are slow. A loose termination can heat and cool thousands of times before it finally fails, and by then the damage is inside the box, the insulation and sometimes the framing around it. Proper work is about the long run: wire sized correctly for the load and every connection made the way the manufacturer and the code intend.

The cost of doing it right the first time is almost always lower than the cost of doing it twice. We would rather tell you the job is bigger than you hoped than come back in two years.

Scheduling and how long it takes

Emergency calls get same-day attention. Scheduled work usually starts within a few days, though a job needing a permit or a utility disconnect runs on the village's calendar and ComEd's, not purely on ours.

Permit turnaround is not the same in every village. Some issue one quickly and others take longer, especially for anything bigger than a circuit. We know to ask, and we factor that wait into the date we give you.

What the permit actually buys you

A permit puts the work on the public record for the address. When the building changes hands, that record is evidence the electrical was done and checked. Without it, a buyer's inspector treats everything they find as suspect.

It also means the work was sized and installed to the code edition in force, not to whatever was normal when the building went up.

Copper, aluminum and what is in your walls

Aluminum branch wiring went into a lot of houses in the late sixties and early seventies. It is not automatically dangerous, but it expands and contracts more than copper, which loosens terminations over time, and it needs devices and connectors rated for it.

The repair is usually not a full rewire. Proper connectors at every termination, done thoroughly, solves most of it. Anybody quoting you a whole-house rewire on sight has not looked.

What to do before we arrive

Leave the panel cover on. Flipping a breaker is fine. Taking the dead front off to look inside is not, because the service conductors at the top stay live even with the main off. We will open it when we get there.

Clear a path to the panel and the problem area. Then jot down anything that seems to set it off, like a certain appliance or time of day.