Can Homeowners Do Their Own Electrical Work? Why They Shouldn’t

When an electrical problem occurs in the home, it often dramatically impacts your quality of life. Usually, homeowners will see an electrical issue and decide to put the task on their to-do lists. But besides risking the chance of unsuccessfully solving the problem, you also risk endangering yourself and your loved ones.

DIY culture finds tremendous prominence these days, and many online videos and tutorials claim to show you how to fix a faulty circuit breaker or electrical socket. However, many of these tutorials account for a specific set of issues, and it’s not always clear to an untrained professional how their situation may differ from a simulated example. DIY electrical work can often leave you with more problems than you had initially.

Whether you break building codes or undertake a project more extensive than you can handle, you should leave electrical work to a professional electrician. At Comfort Specialists in Hunterdon County, we will dispatch someone to your door when you have an electrical problem, so you don’t have time to think about doing the work yourself.

Call Comfort Specialists today to get a free estimate and learn more about electrical problems.

Why You Should Hire an Electrical Contractor

Hiring a licensed electrician should be your go-to move when you discover a circuit issue. Wiring projects are messy and, frankly, difficult to handle correctly without the proper training. And as previously mentioned, your safety should be the number one priority (and it’s always dangerous to tinker with electrical problems as a homeowner).

To help you better understand why you should stay away from electrical issues, we have created a list of the main reasons DIY electrical work may not be the best solution for you.

1. Danger to Yourself and Family

You risk endangering your loved ones and property every time you attempt electrical repairs. You face electrocution or even starting an electrical fire, one of the leading causes of house fires. Often, dealing with junction boxes and other hardware—typically hidden—gives you an increased chance of injury.

Besides igniting a fire on the spot, sometimes a shoddy repair job will leave you with faulty wiring, remaining undetected until a fire starts in the future. According to Electrical Safety Foundation International (ESF), electrical fires make up nearly 51,000 home fires annually, accounting for over 500 deaths and 1,400 injuries.

Keep everyone you live with safe by calling Comfort Specialists when you need assistance from a professional with hundreds of hours of training to work on your electrical system. Our team knows the proper procedures to ensure their safety and yours, and likewise, we inspect every project after completion to guarantee everything was completed correctly.

2. Legal Issues

For many electrical projects, you have to receive the proper licensing and documentation. Permits like these account for local codes and safety protocol, and all our electricians receive the go-ahead before beginning any project. If you get caught doing unlicensed electrical work, you could face severe fines or even jail time.

You can also be sued if a family member or guest gets injured due to your DIY electrical work.

There exist some allowable electrical repairs you can do in your own home without a license. These include:

• Replacing light switches
• Fixing light fixtures
• Replacing fuse wires and cartridges

For everything else, you have to become licensed (which takes hours of work) or hire someone already licensed to complete the project you have in mind. Playing around with the law is an easy way to get yourself into a deeper hole, and with Comfort Specialists so close to your home, you have no reason to avoid hiring someone trained in electrical work.

3. Insurance Problems

Your insurance company could very well reject your claim if they find it due to negligence—which includes doing your own electrical work without a license. This could prevent you from filing a claim for property damage or even an injury.

If you didn’t know that faulty electrical work was performed in your house, you could also be deemed negligent, as you should be aware and concerned with any work done in the home. This gives you another reason to hire a professional, as they have the training to handle all electrical issues correctly, even examining their work after completing a project.

Don’t forget to ask about your electrician’s qualifications before hiring their service. If they have the appropriate qualifications, they will be covered under workers’ compensation, so if by chance they get injured on the job, workers' compensation will cover them. Even if you come across a phenomenal electrician with raving reviews, don’t hire them without getting their credentials—you can be persecuted for hiring someone unlicensed to do this work.

4. Inspection and Reselling

If you do electrical work yourself, you have a greater chance of addressing the issue improperly. Likewise, you may pay for this down the road when it comes time to resell your house. No inspector will pass work done by an amateur, and you’ll likely have to shell out more money on repairs anyway.

Additionally, an inspector may have to tear up part of your home to expose the electrical components in question, costing you even more. Failing an inspection will set you back on your selling window as well as eat at your wallet.

If your home buyer discovers shoddy electrical work after you sell, you can still be liable. This could result in legal action on the part of the buyer due to you not informing them of your DIY electrical work. This is doubly true if you did not list this work as such on the disclosure.

Can Homeowners Do Their Own Electrical Work? Not a Chance

Save yourself time and worry and hire a professional electrician from Comfort Specialists. We will get the job done right the first time so you can relax safely in your home.

Give us a call today at (973) 490-4881 or browse through our customer testimonials—see why so many of your neighbors choose us as the number one Hunterdon County electrician.