We understand as well as anyone why “do-it-yourself” work has appeal for so many people. After all, we’re technicians who enjoy our work, and many of us first got interested in home services because of doing tasks around the house on our own.
However, handling electrical jobs as a DIY project is something we have to warn against trying. It’s not like changing the aerator on a faucet or fixing a loose table leg. For any electrical job more complicated than replacing a lightbulb or resetting tripped breaker switches, you must have a licensed professional electrician in Buffalo, NY. There are several good reasons why.
ONE: Keeping the house up to code
Homes must meet specific electrical safety requirements as established by the local municipality. Your house can be subject to an electrical inspection (common when trying to sell a home), and if amateur work is discovered, the house will fail the inspection. This not only means having to have the amateur work undone and repaired professionally, but also having to pay fines.
TWO: Preventing safety hazards
The electrical code we just mentioned is in place for a good reason: it ensures the electrical system in a house is up to the highest safety standards. Amateur work creates a major risk in a house of electrical fires and high voltage shocks.
According to the Electrical Safety Foundation International (ESFI), more than 51,000 electrical fires occur in the US every year, resulting in 500 deaths and $1.3 billion in property damage. Electrical wiring troubles are the third largest cause of house fires, many due to arcing created by improper wiring. These dangers may not be immediately evident after a DIY electrical job—they can stay hidden for years until a power surge triggers a fire. Just because doing a DIY job seems to work doesn’t mean it did, or mean you can attempt others.
THREE: Proper licensing and insurance
To provide electrical work, an electrician must have a permit and be able to show insurance to cover damage and injury. This is to protect you in case anything goes wrong with the work: you won’t be held liable for any damage done to your house or to a worker.
FOUR: Stopping further repair needs
Home electrical systems are intricate, and small mistakes made in one part of the system end up affecting others. If you’re trying to do DIY repair to a part of the electrical system, you’ll probably need to tinker around to finish the job—and that tinkering is where many other things can go wrong, and you might not realize it until other parts of the electrical system fail. Or a fire starts!
FIVE: Electrical work requires special tools
A basic home repair kit cannot handle most electrical jobs. Professional electricians have access to equipment that amateurs don’t have. Even if amateurs could afford pro-grade tools, it takes special training to use them.
DIY electrical repair is simply not worth it—in any way. You’ll save time and money and keep your home and family safe when you go right to our professional team for your electrical needs.
Scherer Electric is Western New York’s Favorite Electrician! Let us accurately and safely take care of all your home electrical needs.
