Issues in the household are something that a vast majority of homeowners encounter at some point. There are lots of house repairs that you can easily resolve all by yourself, however, there are those, that are a bit complex that require professional help.
In these instances, it would be best to consider hiring an electrician, otherwise, you may make things even worse and even potentially jeopardize your safety and the safety of everyone who lives with you.
But the question is, how will you be able to tell if an electrician is good enough or not? There are some things that need to be taken into account and if you would like to uncover them, then stay tuned to find out more!
Ask For Referrals
Certainly, one of the simplest, yet most effective steps that you can take is to consult people you know, such as your friends, family members, colleagues, neighbors, etc. Focus mostly on people who have had similar house-related problems like yours.
If they tell you that they’ve had a great experience with a specific electrician, then it’s definitely a good idea to consider contacting this person. Generally speaking, doing something like this is going to help you narrow down your options and quickly determine which professional is a good match for you.
Get Your Facts Straight Concerning Their Experience & Qualifications
Before you take any further steps, it would be advisable to ask all about their qualifications and check if they are licensed or not. This sort of information can usually be found on their official website or you can always ask them directly.
From what I’ve heard from a bunch of people, there are a plethora of skilled and seasoned electricians in Australia, especially around the Sunshine Coast. Thereby, if you reside in this region, then be sure to do your homework to get the list of the best electricians on the Sunshine Coast so you can figure out which one is potentially a good fit for the job. But what are you going to do if you can find all this abovementioned information?
Then the next thing you can do is to ask for their name, the name of their business, as well as the license number. All of this info you can employ to confirm their qualification with the labor department in the state you live in.
In case you didn’t know, there are three kinds of electricians that are defined based on their certification level:
- Apprentice electrician – These experts typically do not have any license and need to be monitored while working by someone who is more experienced.
- Journeyman electrician – this is the status that a vast majority of licensed electricians have which lets them work normally without being supervised.
- Master electrician – This is the highest level of certification and something that many electricians (particularly the young ones) do not have because it requires at least 4,000 hours of work. Furthermore, master electricians typically have electrical contractors which represent licensed companies that monitor their electricians on various sorts of jobs.
Does He/She Have An Insurance?
Another thing that it would be recommendable to ask is whether this person has insurance. Even though that’s not something that’s mandatory in every state, it would still always be a good idea to hire somebody who has insurance in case, God forbid, some incident occurs while working at your house.
What I would like to mention is the fact that every company that has workers, is obligated to have workers’ compensation insurance.
Important Questions That Are Supposed To Be Asked
There are a number of questions that every homeowner should ask when they want to determine if a specific electrician is good or not. These include the following:
- What services do you offer? A responsible and professional electrician should be able to give you a list of all the services he or she offers.
- Are you insured? As I previously mentioned, this isn’t something that’s mandatory in every state, however, if you want to provide yourself with an extra layer of protection, then this is for sure something that you must ask.
- Are you licensed? I’ve also discussed this above. In most states, licenses are considered a must, hence do not forget to ask this question as well!
- How long have you been working? Experience in every field is of huge importance, thereby, you should take into account somebody who has a plethora of experience under their belt.
- The cost? When it comes to this, prices can vary, meaning there’s no fixed price. Consequently, if you do not want to potentially blow your budget, then be sure to ask this question too!
- When will you be able to get the job done? If you need some help urgently, then it would be wise to get your facts straight when it comes to this so you can conclude if a particular electrician is a good choice or not.
Don’t Forget To Get A Quote
It would be great if you could acquire several quotations from various electricians and be sure the quote is broken into the work that the electrician is going to be doing, the amount of time it will take to finish the job, and the cost for every material he/she will be using.
If you schedule a meeting with the electrician, then you should focus on several things that are going to help you quickly figure out if that individual is good for you or not. If I were you, I would concentrate on these things below:
- Does this person seem intelligent and resourceful?
- Has he or she talked about their qualifications?
- Were they late or did they turn up on time?
- Did you notice the logo, along with the telephone number?
- Did you receive a verbal or written quote?
- Did they mention the warranty or not?
Finding a good electrician is definitely not as challenging as you may think it is. However, if you want to hunt down somebody who is going to meet all your expectations, then you simply must follow all these steps above.