When to Call a Professional Electrician

You’d likely be surprised at how much an electrician has to know to do their job. This is a trade that requires school, a journeyman period and, sometimes, a long apprenticeship to learn. It’s also very dangerous. There are some fun DIY projects that you can do around the house, such as installing lighting and so forth, but there is a point when you have to call in a pro to stay safe. Remember that the hazards of bad wiring jobs not only include a risk to your life while you’re working on them, they may end up burning down your house in the future.

Dangerous Voltages

Most of the appliances in your home run on 110-120V current. There are usually sockets in your home that supply 220V or 208V current. These will be used for larger appliances, such as your dryer or electric oven. Some sockets even carry 440V. As a general rule, if the socket takes anything but a standard plug, don’t touch it. The standard 110V current is certainly enough to kill you. Anything above that is probably going to do real damage if it doesn’t kill you instantly.

Water Hazards

Any time you have water in a room, electrical outlets and lights become serious hazards. Once you clean out the room, have an electrician take a look at the wiring to make sure it’s not damaged. Damage to the walls or floorboards may end up causing damage to the electrical system and you’ll want an expert to make sure everything’s okay.

Odd Circuits

If you start having trouble with breakers tripping constantly or with power flickering or lowering in voltage when new appliances come online, you need to call an expert in to take a look at the problem. These are all warning signs that something is very wrong. If you turn on the dishwasher, for example, and all of the lights in the house get dimmer, you have a real problem on your hands that needs to be addressed before it becomes a catastrophe.

Shocks

Any fixture that gives you a shock needs to be checked out. For example, if you’re in the bathtub and get a slight shock or tingle when you touch the hot water faucet, you need to call an electrician. These problems can get worse very quickly and an expert needs to take a look at the situation for safety’s sake.

House Mains

Whenever you need to do anything involving your connection to the electrical supply at large, you need to have an electrician handle it. Taking a shock off of the mains that come into the house can be disastrous and, unfortunately, people get killed doing this type of work too often. Call an electrician.

Testing

If you’re in doubt about the safety of the wiring in your home, call an electrician. Don’t try to determine the safety of your wiring on your own. You might be able to assess the obvious things, but there are far too many subtleties with this work for an amateur to do it.