One of the most important jobs we perform for our customers is rewiring older houses to keep them up to code and handle modern electrical loads. There are many vintage homes in Western New York that have outdated wiring that can lead to numerous power failures and even safety hazards. If your home is one of these, you’ll need the assistance of a professional electrician in Clarence, NY to take care of the rewiring—and that means calling us!
But how will you know your home needs professional rewiring? Age alone isn’t the best indicator, since a previous owner may have done upgrades. We’ve put together a list below of the major warning signs that you should call us to rewire all or part of your house.
- Tripped breakers/blown fuses: First, if you still have a fuse box rather than a breaker panel, we strongly recommend you call us to check on your home’s electrical system. At the very least, you need to have the fuse box replaced with a breaker panel. If you have continually tripped breakers, it means the circuits can’t handle the electrical load.
- Acrid burning smells: The smell of an electric fire is sharp and distinct—and you don’t want to encounter it in your house. If you can’t find the immediate source, it may be coming from wiring or behind an outlet or switch.
- Scorch marks on outlet covers and light switches: Here is another sign of electrical fires. You may only need to have the outlet or switch replaced. But for an older home, this may be pointing toward a need for more extensive rewiring.
- Dimming and flickering lights: When this spooky phenomenon starts to happen, it means power fluctuations occurring through the electric system. This might happen because a large appliance (such as an AC) has put extra demand on the electrical system that the wiring cannot handle.
- Frequently burnt-out lightbulbs: Standard incandescent light bulbs can last 3 to 4 years. If you are changing bulbs much more often, it probably means the fixture the bulb is in cannot handle the voltage levels.
- Alarming electrical buzzing sounds: Can’t tell where that sizzling electrical noise in your house is coming from? It may be burning wires—and we recommend you call an electrician quick to investigate it.
- Sparking and arcing from outlets: Each time you put a plug into an outlet or unplug one, do you notice sparks or electrical arcs? This is another sign the wiring is experiencing trouble with the electrical load.
Call Licensed Electricians
There are other possible sources for each of the above symptoms—they don’t all mean you have to have extensive rewiring. But most of them are warning about an electrical concern somewhere in your house, such as a short in an outlet or loss of insulation along wires. Only licensed electricians can accurately diagnose what’s wrong and offer a solution. The work must be done up to code, and that requires an experienced electrical contractor.
Call Western New York’s Favorite Electrician: Scherer Electric! Serving the Buffalo-Niagara Area since 1995.
