Questions to Ask When Hiring an Electrician

Electrical work is the one home project where a bad hire can literally burn your house down. Plumbing leaks are expensive. Painting mistakes are annoying. Electrical mistakes are hidden inside the walls, and you may not know anything is wrong until smoke comes out of an outlet. That’s why hiring an electrician deserves more scrutiny than hiring someone to replace your lawn.

Most homeowners pick whoever picks up the phone first. You can do much better in about an hour of research and five well-placed questions. Here’s what to ask before anyone touches a breaker in your home.

Are you licensed, and can I see it?

In most U.S. states, residential electrical work above a tiny scope requires a licensed electrician. Licensing levels vary — apprentice, journeyman, master — and the person showing up at your door may not be the person whose name is on the license. Ask who on their team will actually be doing the work and what their qualifications are.

Don’t accept “yes, we’re licensed” as an answer. Ask for the license number and look it up on your state’s licensing board website. It takes two minutes and tells you whether the license is active, whether it’s in the right classification for the job, and whether there are open complaints.

If the electrician hesitates or gets defensive when you ask, that is the answer. Move on.

Do you carry insurance, and can you send me a certificate?

You want two kinds of insurance: general liability (covers damage to your property) and workers’ comp (covers an injury to the electrician on your property, so you don’t get sued). A reputable electrician can have their insurance company email you a certificate of insurance in an hour.

If they don’t carry workers’ comp and someone falls off a ladder in your living room, your homeowner’s policy may not cover you. That is the kind of surprise that ends marriages. Get the certificate in writing before work starts.

Have you done this specific kind of job before?

“Electrician” covers a huge range — changing a ceiling fan, rewiring a 1920s house, installing an EV charger, running a subpanel to a detached garage, adding recessed lighting through a finished ceiling. A great electrician for one of those may be mediocre at another.

Describe your job and ask for two or three recent examples of similar work: when, where, and what did it cost? Ask for photos if the job is unusual. A good electrician has examples at their fingertips. A generalist who hasn’t done your job before isn’t automatically a bad choice, but you should know before they start learning on your house.

For big projects, ask for references you can actually call. Then call them. Ask the reference one question that tells you more than any review site will: “Would you hire them again?”

Will you pull a permit?

For anything beyond small repairs, code in most areas requires a permit and an inspection. The inspection exists to catch mistakes before they become fires. Some electricians — usually the cheaper ones — offer to skip the permit to save you money. Don’t let them.

Unpermitted electrical work can void your homeowner’s insurance if there’s a fire, can torpedo a future home sale when it shows up in inspection, and can force you to rip open finished walls to redo the work legally. The few hundred dollars you saved turns into thousands.

Ask explicitly: “Will you pull the permit and schedule the inspection?” The answer should be “yes, I handle that.” If the answer is “you don’t really need a permit for this,” that tells you what kind of operation you’re dealing with.

Can I get a written, itemized estimate?

Get at least three estimates for any job over a few hundred dollars. Each one should be in writing and should itemize labor, materials, permit fees, and any disposal or cleanup costs. Verbal quotes are worth nothing when a dispute starts.

Be cautious of the lowest bid by a large margin. In electrical work, the cheap bid is usually cheap because it’s skipping something — permits, quality materials, insurance, or a step that will cost you later. The middle bid is usually the right bid. The highest bid may be priced for a boutique job you don’t need.

Pay attention to how the estimate handles scope changes. “If we find old aluminum wiring when we open the wall, the price goes up by X per additional circuit” is a good sign. “We’ll just charge you whatever it takes” is not.

What is your warranty, and how do I reach you after the job?

A solid electrician stands behind their work for at least a year on labor and however long the manufacturer covers on parts. Get the warranty terms in writing on the invoice, not on a handshake.

Also get a clear answer on what happens if something goes wrong after they leave. Will they come back? How fast? Is there a call-out fee for warranty work? An electrician who won’t answer those questions up front won’t answer the phone in six months either.

Red flags to walk away from

A few signals should end the conversation, regardless of how good the price looks. No license, no insurance, a demand for the full payment up front in cash, pressure to start the job today, refusal to pull a permit, no fixed business address, a vehicle with no company name on it, or a quote scribbled on a piece of paper. Any one of those is a reason to get another bid. Two of them is a reason to hang up.

You’re inviting someone to work inside your walls on systems that can start a fire. Taking a day to do this right is one of the highest-leverage hours you’ll spend on your home. Use the questions above as a checklist when you’re calling around, and the difference between the good and bad electricians in your area will be obvious by the end of the first five-minute conversation.

Save this post or send it to anyone you know who’s starting a home project. Electrical work is not the place to learn the hard way.