Each year 67,800 fires result from home electrical problems, according to the U.S. Fire Administration. Twice as many of those are due to improper wiring as appliance failures. Imagine you are getting dressed for work in the morning and the bathroom light doesn’t turn on.  A brand new light bulb does not solve the problem, and flipping the switch that controls the light circuit in the fuse box off and on doesn’t do anything either.

You are not MacGyver, but you think you know the difference between the ground wire and the hot wire.  When you remove the light switch from the wall you notice some of the wires have become disconnected.  It’s probably time to just shut off the fuse and reconnect them?

Wrong.  You should call an electrician for your Philadelphia apartment.

You may know what you are doing or have a handy how-to guide—but it is possible the previous residents may have fixed things improperly. They may have reversed wires, replaced the wire with wrong gauge or put too much strain on the fuse (commonly referred to as over lamping). The only way to know you are correctly wiring is to use a special tool called a voltage meter to check for hot wires.

The smartest choice is to contact a licensed electrician. Electricians not only have the tools you don’t, like lineman’s pliers and voltage meters, but they have experience.  A licensed electrician has usually completed extensive internships (typically 3-7 years).  Without proper training, you can seriously hurt yourself by mixing up cables or not taking the proper precautions.  For your own safety and for the safety of other residents, contact us about your electrical problems, however small they may seem.

We can recommend some certified electricians we’ve worked with before and help make you sure the work is done safely and quickly.