Choosing an electrician can be a difficult experience, but choosing the right one can be even tougher — especially in Vancouver BC. This article will provide you with 5 tips to help YOU choose the right electrician in Vancouver, BC.
An abundance of electricians means consumers are overwhelmed with ads & search results, referrals from friends & family, and a wide range of service prices & quality. So how is anyone supposed to narrow it down and make an educated choice of an electrician that suits their needs?
Well, that’s where this article comes in handy. We want you to feel as reassured as possible that you are choosing the right electrician for your project: because not all electricians are created equal.
In this article, we provide our top five tips to help guide you in hiring an electrician in Vancouver, BC, Canada.
The five tips to help you choose the right electrician in Vancouver, BC are:
- Ask for Qualifications
- Check if Insured & Licensed
- Read Reviews
- Double-Check Experience
- Referrals & Recommendations
1. Ensure They are Qualified, Red Seal Electricians
Choosing the right electrician for your residential, commercial, or industrial electrical project should begin with making sure they are qualified to handle the job in the first place.
For electricians, this qualification is called a Red Seal Certification, and to get one requires completion of a 4 year apprenticeship program, over 6000 hours of on-the-job training, and then have to pass their Red Seal Inter-Provincial Exam.
Until these qualification are met, electricians are considered ‘journeymen’ and their experience & expertise can vary greatly. To ensure that the electrician you are choosing in Vancouver will get the job done the right way, ask if they have their Red Seal Certification and feel confident if they do.
2. Check if Insured & Licensed
Electricians are tasked with projects ranging from very basic (think installing a light socket), to extremely challenging and involved (think apartment building).
Regardless of the size of the project, it is important to confirm that the electricians you are hiring have the proper licensing and insurance to perform the requested job safely and correctly.
For builders and contractors, the importance of this step can’t be overstated. With larger projects come numerous tradesmen and stakeholders, so any mistakes to the work can become exceptionally costly if performed incorrectly.
A license show that the electricians have completed the necessary courses and experience to complete the project safely, and ensure their license covers the project you need completed.
Also ask about their insurance. Make sure that they are insured and their insurance has not expired. This will cover damages in case anything goes wrong on their end during the project.
3. Read Reviews
This step is a little more straight forward than # 1 & 2, because for this one you can just Google it!
Look up the electricians/electrical contractors you have narrowed your list down to on Google, and see if they have Google Reviews, Facebook Reviews, or Yelp Reviews. Generally, you will be able to get a pretty good idea of the quality of service they provide by the feedback their customers leave for them.
Check the dates of these reviews and make sure they have current reviews coming in. This not only means they are still in business, but that these reviews are of the electricians currently working for their company. Most businesses worth their salt will have a rating between 4 and 5 on Google, and should have over 10 reviews to really mean anything.
4. Double Check Experience
If you have a complicated electrical project, you need to make sure the electrician you hire has safely completed the same or similar projects in the past.
The last thing you need is for an inexperienced electrician to botch the job, setting you back on your job completion date and potentially costing you money.
Politely ask if they have the experience to complete the electrical installation, and if necessary, ask for references of the work they have completed. Speaking to others about their experience with your electrician will quickly provide the assurance, or lack-thereof, to make a confident decision.
5. Referrals & Recommendations
We touched on this in Tip #4, but will expand on it here.
Utilize your social network and ask around if they know of the electricians you have in mind. Often you will get some valuable direct or indirect feedback about that electrician.
Hearing from your peers provides unbiased opinions on experiences with that electrician. As electricians in Vancouver, Fowlstone Electric knows how important it is to put the customer first and build a positive reputation in the community. As an electrical contracting company for over 40 years, it is with this positive word-of-mouth that fuels our passion and our growth!
Before choosing your electrician in Vancouver, make sure to ask questions and do your due diligence, as not all electricians in Vancouver are created equal. As Fowlstone Electric knows, it is important to have highly-trained, Red Seal electricians to perform your electrical work. If you have any questions for us, please contact us today and speak to an electrical services representative.
