Can we safely say that the days of non-qualified tradespeople doing work in your house are gone? Or are there still remnants of those types of people wandering the neighbourhood offering their services door to door? When it comes to hiring an electrician you are sometimes caught between the need to save money and getting an expert job done in an area where mistakes can be fatal. So, hiring an affordable electrician can sometimes feel like Catch-22.
You don’t want to take any shortcuts on electrical work. But you also don’t want to hand over a king’s ransom for a minor electrical job. Let’s look at a few ways you can save a bit of your heard-earned when you’re in the market for trying to find an electrical contractor.
HomeOwners Association
In Australia, we have the Homeowners Association or the Property Owners Association and referring to them for a list of qualified electricians is a good idea. Local sparkies like to maintain their integrity and business reputation, so finding a highly qualified contractor stands a good chance.
References
Always check the references of any potential hire you undertake. A good electrician should have a good history of customer service. If you get the chance, you should ask previous customers how much they were charged for similar work done. That’s one way of ensuring you get a fair price from your electrician.
The Project Size
How big is this job? Will you need a really well qualified and experienced electrician, like a master electrician, or is it such a small project that you can get away with someone of lesser experience and a lower rate? A large contracting company has quite a different project rate to that of a local, individual business owner. If you are looking at staying within a budget, then the initial appointment of an adequately qualified and experienced electrical contractor will help a lot.
Material Purchase
Saving money on an electrical project can be done by going out and buying some of the materials yourself. We’re not talking about the technical items like switches, conduit, cable and sockets, we mean materials like lighting fixtures can be purchased a lot cheaper if you buy them yourself. Find out from the electrician the recommended items and then go out and buy them wholesale yourself. There can be significant savings here because an electrician will charge you the cost plus the pick-up plus a percentage mark up.
Online Search
You can find just about anything online these days and that includes top tradespeople who have gone to the trouble to advertise their business through the internet. You will find recommendations and testimonials and a list of the types of work the contractor can do. They will also list jobs they have done before.
Hiring an electrician is not necessarily a time consuming and expensive exercise. Just follow these tips and you can save time and money for the next time you are looking for an electrical contractor.