Electrical · Sacramento, CA
Power out, breaker tripping, or something smells hot? Get an electrician on the phone.
With an electrical fault, waiting can start a fire. Call, describe what is happening and give us your ZIP, and we will connect you to an independent electrical company covering your area.
Connects you to an independent electrical company. Home Service Lab does not perform the work and does not set the price.
- No power
- Breaker keeps tripping
- Burning smell
- Dead outlets
- Flickering lights
- Sparking outlet or switch
- Buzzing panel
- Half the house out
Stop and read this first
Electrical faults are the one category on this site where the right first move is sometimes to leave the building.
- Smell burning, see smoke, or see an outlet scorched? Leave, then call 911 from outside. An electrician is the call you make afterwards, not instead.
- Something sparking or arcing? Kill that circuit at the breaker if you can reach the panel safely and dry. Do not touch the device itself.
- A breaker that keeps tripping is doing its job. Reset it once. If it trips again, leave it off and call. Repeatedly resetting a breaker onto a fault is how fires start.
- Water anywhere near electrics? Do not walk through standing water to reach a panel. If you cannot get to it dry, call your utility.
If anyone has been shocked, call 911. Electrical injuries can cause internal damage that is not visible and heart rhythm problems that appear hours later, even when the person feels fine.
What electricians get called for
The jobs that come through this line most.
Written so you know roughly what you are dealing with before anyone arrives. None of this replaces someone looking at it properly.
Burning smell or scorched outlet
Almost always a loose connection arcing behind the faceplate. It does not fix itself and it is the failure mode most likely to become a fire. Kill the circuit and call.
Breaker that will not stay on
Either a genuine overload, a short, or a failing breaker. All three need someone to find out which. The one thing not to do is keep pushing it back on.
Partial power loss
Half the house dark with the main still on usually points at one tripped circuit, a failed breaker, or a loose neutral. The last of those is the serious one.
Panel or fuse box replacement
Older panels, undersized service, or an insurer asking you to upgrade. Nearly always needs a permit and an inspection, and normally a scheduled power cut.
Old or aluminium wiring
Common in houses wired in the mid-to-late 1960s and 70s. It is not automatically unsafe, but connections need specific treatment, so it is worth having assessed rather than guessed at.
EV charger and added load
The question is rarely the charger and nearly always whether the existing service can carry it. That is a load calculation, not an opinion.
In Sacramento
Panel and rewire work in Sacramento is a minor permit.
The City of Sacramento handles residential main and sub service panel work, and rewire work, as minor permits.
California's Department of Industrial Relations requires the electricians working for a C-10 electrical contractor to hold a state certification. Ask for the contractor's C-10 license number before work starts.
Before you agree to work
Five things worth asking on the doorstep.
Electrical work is licensed in nearly every state and inspected in most. These checks matter more here than almost anywhere.
- Your license number and state, please.Electrical is one of the most consistently licensed trades in the US. You can usually verify it with the state board in under a minute.
- Are you carrying current liability insurance?Ask for the certificate. Electrical faults cause fires, and fires cause claims.
- Does this work need a permit, and will you pull it?Panel replacements, service upgrades and new circuits usually do. Unpermitted electrical work surfaces at resale and can affect a fire claim.
- Written estimate before you start.Parts, labor, call-out fee, and what would change the number once the panel is open.
- What did you actually find?A good electrician can tell you the cause, not just the fix. "It was tripping so I put a bigger breaker in" is the wrong answer and a dangerous one.
Cost
Why we will not quote you a price.
Electrical pricing depends almost entirely on what is behind the wall, which nobody knows over the phone. What moves it:
- Finding an intermittent fault can take longer than fixing it. Ask how diagnostic time is charged.
- A run through a finished wall or a floor costs multiples of the same run in an open basement.
- Old wiring types, obsolete panels and discontinued breakers all add cost and sometimes force a wider job.
- Where required, permit and inspection fees sit on top of the quoted work.
- Someone has to patch the drywall afterwards. Check whether that is in the quote or your problem.
- Nights, weekends and holidays carry a premium almost everywhere.
Being straight with you
We route the call. We do not do the electrical work.
This site is a free service to assist homeowners in connecting with local service contractors. All contractors are independent and this site does not warrant or guarantee any work performed. It is the responsibility of the homeowner to verify that the hired contractor furnishes the necessary license and insurance required for the work being performed. All persons depicted in a photo or video are actors or models and not contractors listed on this site.
Questions
Electrical, answered.
What do electricians typically charge?
We don't publish a rate, because the electrical company sets its own prices. Get the price in writing first.
If the job is panel or rewire work in the City of Sacramento, it's a minor permit, so ask whether the permit is in the price.
Why does my breaker keep tripping?
Three usual causes: too much load on the circuit, a short or ground fault somewhere on it, or a breaker that has simply worn out. A breaker that trips is working correctly — it is telling you something.
What matters is that the answer is found rather than bypassed. Fitting a larger breaker to stop the tripping removes the protection without removing the fault.
Is a burning smell an emergency?
Treat it as one. A hot plastic or fishy smell near an outlet, switch or panel generally means a connection is arcing, and that is the classic precursor to an electrical fire. Kill the circuit and get someone out.
If you can see smoke or scorching, leave the building and call 911 first.
Should I just reset the breaker?
Once, yes. If it goes straight back off, leave it off. Repeatedly resetting a breaker onto a fault is exactly the behaviour the breaker exists to prevent.
My GFCI outlet will not reset. What now?
Usually either a genuine fault downstream, moisture in an outdoor or bathroom outlet, or a GFCI that has reached the end of its life — they do wear out. Unplug everything on that circuit and try once more. If it still will not hold, it needs testing rather than replacing blind.
How old is too old for a panel?
Age alone is not the test — condition, capacity and type are. That said, some panel brands installed decades ago have well-documented reliability problems and many electricians and insurers treat them as replace-on-sight. If yours is original to a house built before about 1980, it is worth an assessment.
Do you cover my ZIP code?
Electrical is one of our widest coverage trades, but it is not universal. Call and give us the ZIP and we will tell you in under a minute rather than take your details and leave you waiting.
Other trades
Not what you are dealing with?
Still in the dark?
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(833) 768-2711