Help!!! I need some new electrical wiring in my Victorian house here in University City. It seems I need more circuits because when someone plugs in a hair blower or portable space heater the power blows and I have to run down to the basement to check the circuit breaker.

I've already got a couple of quotes and I'm in shock (no pun intended) ... I must find a more affordable electrician out there.

Any suggestions?????

__________________
"Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself. I am large, I contain multitudes." -- Walt Whitman, Leaves Of Grass

Im NOT an electrician.

But Im gonna take a wild guess.

The quotes were expensive because the electrician wanted to
-- add a new service drop wire from the main on the street
-- add a new circuit breaker box
-- redo ALL the outlets to current code (aka 3 prong - grounded GFI as necessary, proper branch lines etc)

I have no idea as to the rating on the existing box - or the age/condition of the service line from box to street, or the type/size of the current box or the age/type (knob and tube?) of the existing wire.

remodel work can get to be very labor intensive - including alot of "repair" work if holes are knocked in walls etc...

About the only "cheap" way I can think of would be ugly
-- add a new service drop and box
-- tie the existing box off the new box (I have no idea if this is even legal to do or not)
-- add ONLY the minimum amount of new circuits you need and use ugly conduit and race ways and lay the wires on TOP of the walls. Ugly - but "fast".

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Electrica...d-circuits.htm

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Electrica...ng-Outlets.htm

Jack Flash Electric, 215-676-3575 (www.jackflashelectric.com). They don't cut corners, and I don't know if they will come in a lot cheaper on your job, but they did on ours. They were also extremely reliable and conscientious, even coming back at no extra charge to investigate something that seemed not to be working a couple of months after they did it. Very personable too.

LIsa

Electricity is different than plumbing, roofing or carpentry in that it can kill via a flare-up and fire. If a pipe leaks it causes unfortunate damage, everybody is unhappy, but you fix it and move on. Electricity will take lives.

Some electricians know this and use it as an opportunity to add-on unnecessary scope to a project, but others are just following the code/guidelines which have changed over the years to keep up with the higher draws (appliances/electronics) of today's society. Those codes state that you can't just change part of a faulty system, once you start to fix it, the whole thing needs to be brought up to code otherwise that electrician is liable and could lose his license/bond - and God forbid someone gets hurt, it goes right back to who was the electrician on the job.

Sometimes this puts us in the "shitty" position of having to tell a homeowner the bad news - that a repair is going to be costly - and we sound like we're trying to get one over on the homeowner (a reputation propagated by the existence of many unscrupulous contractors).

With all that said, I'm not sure if in this situation you are getting the straight scoop on what needs to be done or taken for a ride.

How many estimates did you get ?
If 3 or more, was the scope of work the roughly the same in all 3 ?
If so, was the price within 15-20% of each other ?
Did you look the electricians up on L&I's website to confirm that they are licensed in the city ?
http://webapps.phila.gov/li/
then click on the resources tab and
"Search for Licensed Contractors." link

Good luck, feel free to give me a call if you want to chat about the situation - I do sincerely like to help folks with their home improvement stuff. I'm not trying to solicit work, just trying to allow others to benefit from the knowledge I've acquired

__________________
Take Care,

Joe Carvalho

Bubble Builders
(267) 784-7564

PS - Commit a random act of kindness today

Each one of you made a valuable contribution to a greater understanding of my problem. It's really simple: my electrical wiring has to be improved to handle a greater "load" without short-circuiting.

Joe, I'm gonna give you a call in the next couple of days.

So far, I got three estimates: $1,400 to $1,800. I managed to scrimp and save $1,000 so far. Money is very tight and I'm just barely paying my bills.

I'll try to get one or two more estimates.

Thank you!

__________________
"Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself. I am large, I contain multitudes." -- Walt Whitman, Leaves Of Grass

I have had good experience with Dowling and Arrigale - 6104468866

Good luck.

I've had really good luck with Vlad Ringe. He's reasonably priced, honest and licensed. One thing to keep in mind is that rewiring these old houses is not easy. You go to replace one circuit in a bedroom and realize the whole floor is wired to it.
These houses also tend to be a hodge-podge of old and new wiring tied together, which in my mind, represents the biggest danger.
New code requires bedrooms to be on arch-fault circuits and bathrooms to be on ground fault circuits. A good electrician will pretty much insist on doing these things the right way. In our case, we had Vlad pull wires for some new circuits, but held off on wiring in some of the outlets and receptacles to save a little money. Again we were very happy with him.

http://www.electricaledge.net/

Sounds like you have the same problem I had in my 6 bedroom Victorian; Old tube & lume wiring. The wiring runs in series like the old christmas lights up the back of the house feeding rooms as it goes across the upper floor ceiling still feeding rooms and down the front of the house still feeding rooms. . My lights would flicker & go so bright they blew. Circuits worked one day & not the next. . I was lucky to get-- Al 215-207-7477 Al came and rewired the entire house putting in new switches & outlets.. including installing hardwire Smoke alarms for each room. He put each room on its own circuit breaker. He would arrive everyday including Saturday around 9am and would work well past 9pm at night stopping only for a quick lunch break. Six months after the job was complete I had a surge & called him. He stopped what he was doing & was here within 45 minutes. Only to discover the problem was a blown transformer out on the street. He was understanding and didn't charge for the unnecessary call. The good thing about this was my electric bill actually decreased a good bit, he found that some outlets were double wired drawing more current when in use than was needed. He said it was a common practice to just tap onto an existing outlet when they put another in a room then over the yrs.when a problem developed someone would wire a new line to one outlet thus double feeding others. I wish you the satisfaction with your job that I have with mine. Mom told me many yrs ago. when you are buying something you intend to use many times don't buy the cheap one because you'll replace it again & again. The same goes with this wiring you know how long you wish to live in this fine old house & you want the security of knowing the job was done right the first time.

Sounds like you have the same problem I had in my 6 bedroom Victorian; Old tube & lume wiring. The wiring runs in series like the old christmas lights up the back of the house feeding rooms as it goes across the upper floor ceiling still feeding rooms and down the front of the house still feeding rooms. . My lights would flicker & go so bright they blew. Circuits worked one day & not the next. . I was lucky to get-- Al 215-207-7477 Al came and rewired the entire house putting in new switches & outlets.. including installing hardwire Smoke alarms for each room. He put each room on its own circuit breaker. He would arrive everyday including Saturday around 9am and would work well past 9pm at night stopping only for a quick lunch break. Six months after the job was complete I had a surge & called him. He stopped what he was doing & was here within 45 minutes. Only to discover the problem was a blown transformer out on the street. He was understanding and didn't charge for the unnecessary call. The good thing about this was my electric bill actually decreased a good bit, he found that some outlets were double wired drawing more current when in use than was needed. He said it was a common practice to just tap onto an existing outlet when they put another in a room then over the yrs.when a problem developed someone would wire a new line to one outlet thus double feeding others. I wish you the satisfaction with your job that I have with mine. Mom told me many yrs ago. when you are buying something you intend to use many times don't buy the cheap one because you'll replace it again & again. The same goes with this wiring you know how long you wish to live in this fine old house & you want the security of knowing the job was done right the first time.

Contact Greg Avakian. We've had him do a lot of work on our house and he does a wonderful job. (In 20 mins, he was able to diagnose and fix a problem that we had (stupidly) paid 2 previous electricians to "fix" unsuccessfully.) His pricing is very reasonable and he only works in our hood so he knows these old homes very well. You can search for him on the blog as he posts answers to electrical questions on a regular basis. His user id is his name: http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/mem...g-avakian.html