Los Angeles electricians who explain the whole price.
We do panel and service upgrades, repairs, rewiring, lighting and EV charging. Before you decide anything, you see what moves the number and what is left out of it.
Sending the form costs nothing and does not book a visit.
Coming out to look is free. Your price the same day you ask.
Or start with the jobA written price that lists what is not in it
We name the part of the cost that is not ours to keep
We will tell you when you do not need the work
Everything we do
Pick the one closest to what is going on. Each one says what the job involves and what moves the price.
Breaker box, fuse box, electric panel
Panel and service upgradesSwapping the breaker box, fuse box or electric panel is the part people picture. Most of the electrical work is the service entrance, the grounding, and the circuits that have to come up to what is required now.
See what is involved ›
Dead outlets, a breaker that keeps tripping, lights that flicker
Electrical repairs and fault findingA breaker that trips again is telling you something, and our job as electricians is finding out what. This is also where the outlets a home inspection flagged get their GFCI or AFCI protection.
See what is involved ›
Old cloth wiring, or knob-and-tube
Whole-house rewiringAn electrical rewire happens in stages and you keep living in the house while it runs. We say what goes first and which walls get opened, so you know what the place looks like in between.
See what is involved ›
Recessed lights, switches, dimmers, ceiling fans
Lighting and fixturesNew lighting usually needs a neutral at the box, a switch that can dim what you are putting in, and a ceiling that can carry it. Our electricians check those three before anything gets cut.
See what is involved ›
A charger for the car
EV charger installationMounting a Level 2 charger is the quick part. What decides the price of the electrical work is how far it sits from the panel, whether the panel can carry it, and how the cable gets from one to the other.
See what is involved ›
Power out to a garage, a workshop or an ADU
Sub-panels and outbuildingsElectrical power to a detached building means a feeder, a trench and its own sub-panel. The trench is usually the thing that decides how long the job takes and what the yard looks like after.
See what is involved ›Driveway gate power, controls and troubleshooting
We do the electrical side of gate work. We are not a gate company.
How this goes
- 1
You tell us what is going on
One sentence about what is happening will do. You do not need to know what the fault is.
- 2
We ask for what we need
If a photograph would help, we ask for one when we get back to you. If it needs a visit, we say so.
- 3
You get it in writing
The price lists what is in it and what is not, and says what would change it.
- 4
We handle the paperwork
We pull the permit and do the paperwork with your utility. When the work is done, we book the final inspection. How long each step takes is up to your city and your utility.
Which half of the job is ours
Every price we write names what is in it and what is not. Part of the cost of a service upgrade is not ours to keep, and we tell you which part.
The line the utility draws is a real line on the side of your house. Above it, the price is worked out by the utility and it is not money we keep. Below it, the price is ours and it is written down.
- We do this our work, our price
- Your city decides the permit desk and what it asks
- Your utility decides everything above the meter
What moves the number
A service upgrade is several jobs in one. Part of it is ours, and the rest belongs to your city and to the company that sells you power.
| Who decides it | What it is | What it does to the price |
|---|---|---|
| We decide this | How far the new panel is from where the power comes in | Moving the panel to the other side of the house is a different job from replacing it where it stands. |
| We decide this | Whether the service entrance and the meter socket get reused | Sometimes the conductors and the socket that are already there are fine. Sometimes they are the reason a quote went up. |
| We decide this | How many circuits have to be brought up to what is required now | AFCI breakers. They cost more than plain ones, and a quote that leaves them out is cheaper and is not a finished job. |
| Your city decides this | Which permit desk your address is on | Different desks ask for different things and take different amounts of time. The lookup further down tells you which one you are on. |
| Your utility decides this | Whether anything has to change on the utility’s side of the meter | LADWP’s own charges page says conduit work in public property, transformer work and street resurfacing are worked out case by case by a service planning engineer. By its own description that part cannot be quoted from a price list. It is also money we do not keep. |
| Nobody knows yet | What is behind the wall | Old splices, a circuit nobody knew about, cloth insulation that falls apart when it moves. We say what we can see before anything is opened, and we tell you what it does to the price if it is there. |
Coming out to look and giving you a price is free. You pay for the work.
You get your price the same day you ask.
Your written price says which of these apply to your job and what each one does to the number.
What is not in the price
This is the list that costs people money. A cheaper quote is often a smaller quote, and the difference is usually in here.
Drywall, stucco and paint.
Opening a wall is part of the job. Putting the finish back the way it looked is not, unless your quote says it is.
Circuits we find once the wall is open.
If something behind the wall is not safe to reconnect, that is new work. It gets its own price before anyone touches it.
Asbestos and lead.
If a test is needed, that is specialized abatement work. We do not do it, and it is not in the price.
Landscaping and hardscape.
Trenching out to a sub-panel or an ADU disturbs ground. Putting the yard back is not in the price.
Temporary power.
If you need power in the house while the service is off, that is its own item.
The utility’s own charges.
Whatever the utility bills for on its side of the meter is theirs. It is not in our number and we do not keep any of it.
The permit fee.
We pull the permit, and you pay the fee directly to your city. It is not in our number.
Anything that is not written down.
If it is not on the quote, it is not in the price.
The wiring we find in Los Angeles houses
Most of the housing stock here predates the wiring it is running on. This is what that looks like when the cover comes off.
Which utility, and which permit desk
Los Angeles County is not on one electric utility and it is not on one permit desk. Which pair you are on changes who spots the meter and who schedules the disconnect. It also changes how long the waiting parts take.
- LADWP
- Southern California Edison
- Burbank Water and Power
- Glendale Water and Power
- Pasadena Water and Power
- Azusa Light & Water
- Vernon Public Utilities
- Cerritos
If your insurance company named your panel
A letter from an insurer about the panel is asking for something specific, and a paid invoice is not it. Tell us what the letter says and we will tell you what it is asking for.
Things you can check
What comes with our work, and what you can check against the source before you call anyone.
One-year warranty on our work
If something we installed or repaired fails within a year because of our work or a part we supplied, we come back and fix it at no charge.
- Which utility you are on
Some lists on the web put Beverly Hills and West Hollywood on LADWP. LADWP’s own boundary map puts both on Southern California Edison.
Check your address - What is not in the price
The full list of what a price from us leaves out, where you can read it before you sign anything.
Read the list - How long the utility takes
LADWP gives two figures for its service planning visit: 5 to 15 business days on its web page, and 5 to 10 in its own guide.
See the whole timeline
Nineteen twenties bungalows with the service drops still running overhead. Most of the houses we get called to look like this.
Where we work
The wiring is much the same across the county. Which utility spots the meter and which desk issues the permit can change inside a five-mile drive.
Tap a place to see which utility and which permit desk it sits on. Pasadena, Encino, Hollywood and Santa Monica open pages of their own.
We work across Los Angeles County, California.
Questions we get before anyone books
Something we have not answered here? Ask us on the phone.
Call (310) 857-2520Do you charge to come out?
No. Coming out to look and giving you a price is free. You pay for the work.
Often nobody has to come out at all. If a photograph of the panel is enough for a real range, we say so when we get back to you and price it from that.
Can you price it from photographs?
Sometimes. When we get back to you we will say whether a photograph would be enough for your job, and if it would, we will ask for one. Where it is not, we say what we need to see.
Do you handle the permit and the utility?
Yes. We pull the permit and handle the paperwork with your utility. When the work is done, we book the final inspection that closes the permit. You pay the permit fee directly to your city, and it is not part of our price. Anything that needs your signature is written into the quote.
Why is your number different from the one I got last week?
Usually scope. Two quotes for the same panel can differ by a lot because one of them includes circuits the other left out. The list further up this page is where to start comparing.
Do I really need 200 amps?
Sometimes not. A load calculation answers it, and where the answer is no we say so.
I rent. Can I still call you?
Yes. Say so at the start, because whoever owns the place has to authorize the work before it goes ahead. If you prefer not to be the go-between, give us the owner or the manager and we will take it from there.
What if it turns out to be nothing?
Sometimes the answer is that you do not need anybody. If a reset fixes it, we will say so on the phone and there is nothing to pay.
Who patches the wall?
Read the list of what is not in the price. Opening the wall is part of the job. Making the finish match is not in the price unless your quote says it is.
Say what is happening and we will tell you what it involves.
One sentence about what is happening will do. Sending it costs nothing and does not book a visit.