Is it necessary to pull permits to do electrical work and is it necessary for the electrician to be licensed and bonded? If an accident happened that started a fire, would the insurance companies use it against us if we didn’t?
In particular, I was given the names of two electricians who are not licensed, but who work for companies that do electrical work (and therefore presumably know their stuff), and do side work for extra $$.
We want to do a bunch of work from running ethernet and phone wires, to adding switches, hanging light fixtures, and recessed lighting, and grounding the old 1960s outlets.
All these can be done by handyman or the non-electricians. If you need to work complex items, involving main panel or adding a 240v lines…etc, you need electrician. He will tell you whether permit is required or not.
I did engage electrician to run a new 240 V line from panel two times and one time changing the 100 Amp main panel to 250 Amp main panel. Panel change involved city permit,inspection and PGE help…etc costed me $5500+Stuuco handyman fix.
Electrician is expensive $125/hr to $150/hr, while handyman is around $40-$50 depends on work. When I engaged electrician, he in-turn hires handyman for his help, esp on drilling, wiring etc. The handyman knows what wire standard he has to buy for connections.
I had a fire in one of my rentals. All the electrical wasn’t to code and altered without permits since it was built in 1953. The insurance company didn’t care.
A handyman would do. A licensed electrician would charge you extra fees for investigating the issues only! If you schedule a handyman from a Field Service Company, you can get all your work done quickly in half the price as quoted by a licensed electrician.