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Warning signs
Most electrical problems are annoying. A few are genuinely dangerous, and the difference isn't always obvious. Here's how we triage the calls that come in — same list, same answers, whether or not you end up hiring us.
Smoke or flames from an outlet or panel · a burning smell you can't locate · sparks arcing from a wall · someone has been shocked and is confused, burned, or having chest pain · a downed power line on your property. Leave the building, call 911 from outside, and don't touch the panel.
Symptom checker
Filter by how fast it actually needs attention. When in doubt, call — we'd rather talk you out of a service call than read about your house in the paper.
An outlet or switch plate that's warm to the touch, or browning around the slots, means heat is being generated where it shouldn't be. That's how wall fires start.
A healthy panel is silent. Buzzing usually means a loose connection arcing behind the cover — the single most common cause of electrical fires we see.
A breaker that won't stay on is doing its job — there's a short or a ground fault on that circuit. Repeatedly forcing it back on is the worst possible move.
A tingle when you touch the stove, the washer, or a faucet means current is finding a path it shouldn't have. The next person to touch it might be standing in water.
Overheating wire insulation smells like burning plastic or, oddly, fish. If you smell it and can't find a source, the source is inside a wall.
A brief flicker is normal. A noticeable dip every time a big motor starts usually means your service is undersized or a connection is loose upstream.
No third prong means no ground. Everything you plug in — computers, TVs, tools — is unprotected, and a fault has nowhere safe to go.
Fuse panels aren't automatically dangerous, but they're usually 60A service on a house that now wants 200A — and many insurers won't write a policy on one.
A cord that's been feeding the same lamp for three years isn't a cord anymore, it's undersized wiring. Cords under rugs are worse — they overheat with nowhere to shed it.
Kitchen counters, bathrooms, garages, basements, and outdoors all require GFCI protection under current code. If your outlets have no test/reset buttons, you don't have it.
If it's just the one fixture and nothing else on that circuit misbehaves, it's usually a loose bulb, a failing LED driver, or a worn socket.
A 15A circuit and a 1,500W heater are right at the edge. The breaker is doing exactly what it was designed to do.
Worn contacts. Not dangerous today, but a loose plug arcs a little every time it wiggles, and that's how a "not urgent" becomes a "call now."
Straightforward planned work. No danger, no rush — just schedule it and batch it with anything else on your list.
Nothing in that category. Try another filter.
Before you call
Half of the "my power is out" calls we get are solved in the driveway. Try this first — it's safe, and if it works you just saved yourself a service fee.
Look at the neighbors' porch lights. If the whole street is dark, it's the utility — call them, not us.
A tripped breaker often doesn't look fully off. Scan the row for one sitting slightly out of alignment with the rest, or in a middle position.
This is the part people miss. A tripped breaker has to be pushed all the way off before it will reset. Stand to the side of the panel, not square in front of it.
One GFCI outlet can control several others downstream. Look in the bathroom, garage, and outside for a RESET button and press it — an entire dead wall often comes back.
Two resets is the limit. After that the breaker is telling you something real, and forcing it is how insulation cooks inside a wall. That's our call to take.
Keeping it that way
Press TEST, confirm the power dies, press RESET. Takes ten seconds and they do fail silently with age.
Once a season, stand near it in a quiet house. Buzzing, humming, or heat coming off the cover all mean call us.
Code requires three feet of clearance. That's not bureaucracy — it's so someone can kill the power fast in an emergency.
"Kitchen" is not a label. We'll map and relabel your whole panel free with any job over $500.
If you have small kids, TR outlets beat plastic plug caps — kids can't remove what isn't there. About $135 a pop.
Power strips protect one device. A panel-mounted surge protector covers the furnace, the fridge, and everything you forgot about.
Still not sure?
No charge for the conversation, and no pressure if it turns out to be nothing. We answer the phone at 2am for the ones that aren't.