What switchgear involves

Three-phase work is its own discipline. The work starts with finding out what is actually there. With switchgear, that means looking at the existing wiring, the panel capacity and whatever the last person left behind.

We explain the job in plain terms before anything starts: what we are changing, why, and how long the power will be off. If a smaller fix does the job, that is the fix you get.

Where this comes up

Motor controls, machinery wiring, 480V systems and plant distribution. Most of these calls come from Des Plaines and the surrounding suburbs, but we take them anywhere in our service area.

A lot of the work in Illinois starts in a house or building that has been added onto more than once. Each addition borrowed power from whatever circuit was closest, and by now nobody knows which breaker feeds what. Sorting that out is part of the job.

How we do it

We work like it is our own house. Drop cloths go down, the power stays off only as long as it has to, and the work is finished to code with the permit closed out where the village requires one.

Why this is worth doing properly

Cheap electrical work usually gets paid for twice. The first time is the low price. The second is when an inspector, a buyer’s home inspection or a failed device finds what was skipped, and somebody has to open the walls back up to fix it. Doing it right the first time is the less expensive path, even when the first number is higher.

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

Call in the middle of the night with a dead panel and someone answers. Call on a Tuesday about adding outlets and you will likely see us within a few days, sooner if the schedule allows.

Some dates are ours to set and some belong to somebody else. The install day is ours. The village inspection and any ComEd disconnect are not, so we book those first and build our part of the schedule around them.

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.

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.

The warning signs people ignore

Sparks get noticed. The warnings that get missed are subtler: lights that brighten when something else turns on, a GFCI that will not reset after rain, a smell you cannot place that seems to come from a wall. Each one is a problem that is still small.

Intermittent is not minor. An intermittent connection is usually a loose one, and loose connections are the ones that heat up.