Electrical Inspection

Electrical Inspection you can count on

An electrical inspection is worth having at three moments: before you buy a house, after you buy one that turned out to be older than the listing implied, and when something has started behaving oddly and you want to know whether it is one thing or a pattern.

What you are buying is an opinion you can act on. Not a list of everything technically short of current code — almost every older house fails that, and a report that flags four hundred items tells you nothing. What you want is the three things that actually matter, ranked, with an honest note about what is merely old versus what is genuinely unsafe.

We look at the service and panel, the grounding and bonding, the branch circuits and devices, the protection the code now requires in wet and sleeping areas, and anything previous work left behind. Then we tell you which of it needs money now, which needs money eventually, and which is simply the age of the house.

What we handle

• Pre-purchase and pre-sale inspections
• Panel, grounding, and wiring assessment
• Safety hazard identification
• Clear, prioritized written findings

Signs it is time to call

You are buying, and the house pre-dates 1980

The home inspection will say "recommend evaluation by a licensed electrician". This is that evaluation, and it is worth doing before you are committed rather than after.

Obvious DIY work

Junction boxes without covers, cable stapled where it should be in conduit, an outlet somebody added to a circuit that could not carry it. Individually minor; collectively a pattern.

Fuses, or a panel you do not recognise

Fuse panels and recall-era brands are both worth knowing about before they surprise you.

You are insuring, refinancing or renting it out

All three can ask for documentation of condition, and an inspection report is that document.

Something changed

Lights dimming, breakers tripping more than they used to, an outlet that got warm. Any of those is a reason to look at the whole picture rather than one device.

How the job runs

1. Service, panel and groundingCapacity, condition, brand, breaker sizing, bus and lug condition, and whether the grounding electrode system meets current requirements.
2. Circuits and devicesSampled testing across the house — polarity, grounding, GFCI and AFCI function where required, and the condition of devices and connections.
3. The wet and sleeping areasKitchens, baths, laundry, garage, exterior and bedrooms are where the protection requirements have changed most, and where the gaps matter most.
4. Evidence of previous workAdditions, remodels and DIY. What was permitted, what was not, and what was left in a way that will cause trouble.
5. A ranked reportSafety now, should-do, and age-of-the-house. Ranked, with the reasoning, so you can decide rather than just worry.

What moves the price

We do not publish a flat number for work we have not looked at — a quote made from a web page is a guess, and guesses get corrected on invoice day. These are the things that genuinely change what your job costs:

• Size of the house and the number of circuits
• Accessibility of the panel, attic and crawlspace
• Whether you need a written report for a transaction or an informal walkthrough
• Age of the system — older houses simply take longer to assess properly
• Any additional structures: ADU, shop, barn, well house

This is the one service where the deliverable is genuinely just our judgement and our time, so the price tracks the hours honestly rather than any parts.

What this means on the Central Coast

Buying on the Central Coast frequently means buying something built between 1955 and 1980, often extended once or twice by somebody who did the work themselves. That is not a reason to walk away — it is a reason to know what you are taking on before you own it. Rural North County parcels add outbuildings, well houses and long feeders, which are exactly the parts a general home inspection is least equipped to assess. On the coast, add corrosion to the list: exterior equipment in Morro Bay or Cayucos ages differently from the same equipment in Templeton.