What to ask an electrician before hiring

Anyone can put together a nice-looking quote. What separates a good electrician from a bad one usually shows up in the answers to a handful of direct questions, before any wire gets run. Here's what's worth asking, and why each one matters.

Are you licensed and insured

It's a fair question and a company that does real work won't mind being asked. Licensing and insurance protect you two different ways, insurance covers you if something goes wrong on the job, licensing means the person doing the work has actually been through the training to know what code requires and why. Bretco has been licensed and insured since it opened in 1990, and states that plainly rather than making you dig for it.

Who actually turns up

There's a real difference between a company that sends whoever's free that day and one where the person on your porch is the person who diagnoses the problem and fixes it. Ask what happens after the estimate, is it the same electrician who quoted the job, or does it get handed off. Reviews of Bretco's work consistently name the electricians who showed up, Steve and Luis fixed a bad breaker and a bad switch on the same visit for one Winston-Salem homeowner, Randy Draughn handled a 22 kW whole-house generator install for another. That's not an accident, it's a small crew that knows the work. It's a fair thing to ask upfront, some companies send a rotating cast of subcontractors and some send the same small crew every time, and the difference shows up in how well they know a house they've already been in before.

Is the diagnosis and the fix one visit or two

A lot of electrical problems get worse between the estimate and the repair simply because of the gap between them, a second appointment two weeks out while a warm outlet or a tripping breaker keeps getting used in the meantime. Ask directly whether the electrician carries the parts and tools to fix what they find, or whether a diagnosis just books a second visit. Bretco's own answer to this is built into how the crew works, everything needed to diagnose and repair is on the van, so most jobs get fixed the same day they're looked at. A second visit isn't automatically a red flag, sometimes a part genuinely has to be ordered, but it shouldn't be the default answer to a routine repair.

What's the service call rate, and what if it's worse once the cover is off

Ask the rate before anyone opens a panel or pulls a cover plate, not after. And ask what happens if the problem turns out to be bigger than expected once they're in there, does the price change without a conversation first, or do you get told what it is and why before anything else gets touched. A company with a low, straightforward service call rate and no interest in surprise line items is the one worth calling back.

• Are you licensed and insured, and can I see that in writing
• Will the same person who quotes the job do the work
• Do you carry the tools and parts to fix what you find, or does that need a second visit
• What's your service call rate, and does it change if the job turns out bigger
• Is the work guaranteed once it's done

Get more than one quote, and compare more than the number

It's worth getting a second opinion on anything beyond a simple repair, not because the first quote is wrong, but because the answers to the questions above vary more between companies than the price usually does. A lower number attached to a rushed diagnosis and a rotating crew isn't actually cheaper if the job has to be redone. Compare what's included, not just what's charged.

Is the work guaranteed

That last question matters more than it sounds. Work that's guaranteed means the company stands behind it after the van pulls away, not just on the day of the install. Bretco guarantees its work and uses top-quality products rather than whatever's cheapest, which is worth asking any electrician about directly, guarantee terms vary and a business confident in its work will tell you plainly what's covered. With 4.8 out of 5 from 128 Google reviews, Bretco's answer to most of these questions is already sitting in what past customers wrote about the actual visit, not just the quote. Reading a handful of actual reviews, not just the star rating, usually tells you more about what a visit is like than the sales page does.