What overhead electrical services involves

Service work means coordinating with the utility, not just with the customer. The work starts with finding out what is actually there. With overhead electrical services, that means looking at the existing wiring, the panel capacity and whatever the last person left behind.

Honest answer first. If what you have is fine, we say it is fine. If it needs work, we tell you how much and why, with the urgent parts separated from the ones that can wait.

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

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

Insurance companies and home buyers both ask about electrical work eventually. Unpermitted wiring can complicate a claim or a sale, and a panel full of mismatched breakers can stall a closing. Work that was permitted and inspected, with the paperwork kept, answers those questions on one sheet of paper. That is a lot easier than explaining a mystery circuit years after the fact.

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

Most scheduled jobs start within a few days. Anything needing a village permit or a utility disconnect waits on those offices, and we will tell you up front how long that usually takes. Emergencies skip the line and get same-day attention.

We will tell you at the quote which parts we control and which parts we do not. A service upgrade waiting on a utility appointment is a different timeline from a panel swap we can do tomorrow.

Code, permits and inspection

Most permitted jobs have two inspections. The rough-in is checked with the walls open, before insulation and drywall. The final happens once devices are in and the power is on. Missing the rough-in means opening finished walls later, so we schedule around it from the start.

We deal with whichever jurisdiction the job sits in. We pull the permit, we schedule the inspection, and we are there when the inspector walks it. You get the paperwork at the end, which matters when you sell the building or when an insurer asks.

Grounding and bonding

Grounding is the part nobody sees and the part that decides whether a fault clears safely. The ground path has to be continuous and low-impedance from every device back to the service, and the neutral and ground can only be bonded together in one place.

A neutral bonded to ground in a subpanel is one of the most common defects we find. It works right up until it does not, and then it puts current on metal that people touch.

When to stop and call

If a breaker trips again right after you reset it, leave it off and call. Same if a faceplate feels warm to the touch or the panel is humming. Resetting a breaker over and over is how a small fault becomes a fire.

Half the house losing power while the other half keeps working usually means one leg of the service has dropped. Sometimes the fault is in the panel, sometimes on the utility side. Either way, stop troubleshooting and call so we can find out which.

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.