I know quite a bit about wiring, and about electrical safety generally. Therefore, I can:
[] Install
[] Repair
[] Evaluate--is it safe?
[] Inspect--is it legal?
[] Teach . . .
A seminar for a group; or
One-on-one how-to for a do-it-yourselfer;
[] Write Edit, and Fact-check print and on-line material about electrical work.
. . . I've provided all these services, and continue to do so as I am called upon.
I am a master electrician, licensed to provide any electrical service by Maryland, Virginia (Class A) and D.C., plus various subsidiary jurisdictions. (Statewide licenses mean that I can readily arrange reciprocal licensure in any jusrisdiction within Maryland or Virginia.) My contracting is covered by suitable insurance and bonding.
What follows is a description, in sequence, of
my substantial credentials,
of the sometimes-special services I provide--I personally, since 1981,
sending no one else out in my name--
and of how I charge for my services.
If you are familiar with my credentials and want to jump ahead, here are some internal links.
I can evaluate wiring for safety.
I can inspect wiring for legality, by which I mean whether it meets the requirements in the National Electrical Code.
There's yet another type of inspecting. The Authority Having Jurisdiction, usually your city or county,
requires a permit for most electrical work, and except in one special case insists on inspecting the
installation--just that aspect of your wiring addressed by the permit. In
some cases, they allow a third party to perform that inspection for them.
I have the credentials to do this type of inspecting,
and some jurisdictions have asked me to do so. I have been invited to perform contract inspections for Frederick County, Maryland and the Cities of Laurel and Annapolis, Maryland. While honored by the invitations, For one reason or another
I have not taken up their offers. Similarly, Intertek, a competitor to Unerwriters Laboratories, Inc., offered me a job as a part-time Field Evaluation Engineer for them,
and I had to say no.
I am authorized to function as a Third-Party Inspector in Washington, D.C.
If you are a contractor seeking my services as a third-party inspector,
or represent an Authority Having Jurisdiction seeking to contract with me for inspection services,
the information you want is on a different web page. Please follow this link.
If you want to jump ahead to my description of these service offerings, this is the link. The section also contains links to three short essays: hints on dealing with contractors; how my sweat equity, meaning "work-with" arrangements, function; and two case studies. A fourth essay is in preparation.
The last section on this page is my Terms of Engagement. It is the agreement under which I do business. I do not compete
for jobs where "anybody could do this, and it doesn't matter who I get." I can't afford to.
Because I offer more
than the next person may--and I include the next licensed contractor--my fee schedule is
nuanced rather than consisting of an unchanging hourly fee or fixed job estimates--for one thing, I am no estimator.
Enough said: if you are particularly concerned with what a job will cost you up-front,
perhaps even a bit more than with simply obtaining the very best quality and reliability, it is well worth your reading this section carefully rather than glancing past it.
A considerable amount of my time is devoted to volunteer activities; when I go out on a job, I charge for my hours and for the responsibility I take on.
My customers agree that I give good value. This both describes and explains the charges.
I have been certified through the International Association of Electrical Inspectors as an electrical plan reviewer since 1986,
and as an electrical inspector, both residential (since 1986) and general (since 1997). The Maryland State Fire Marshall
has authorized me to conduct electrical inspections since 1997. These credentials were all renewed in 2008. Ditto Washington, D.C., as described elsewhere.
My contracting and consulting have been recommended by the American Homeowners' Association, by Home Connections, by BG&E's Keeping Current, by Washingtonian Magazine, and by Washington Consumer Checkbook. Some of the best-known home inspectors--senior members of the American Society of Home Inspectors--give out my name, and one or two realtors, the type known as buyer's agents, refer clients to me likewise. Then there are various local listservs that recommend my services, in addition to the person-to-person recommendations.
I have in the past been a member of the National Fire Protection Association, publishers
of the National Electrical Code, and am active in the American Council on Electrical Safety.
More important to me is my decades-long membership in the International Association
of Electrical Inspectors (IAEI). I serve as Secretary-Treasurer of the DC/Maryland chapter and
as a member of the executive board for the Eastern United States.
IAEI has certified me as an electrical instructor qualified to teach seminars providing Continuing Eduation to electrical inspectors. I have provided Continuing Education on electrical safety inspection to the American Society of Home Inspectors twice, once locally and once in New York; I received a request to address their Metropolitan Washington Area chapter this Fall (2008).
In addition, I have served as a consultant on electrical topics to book and pamphlet publishers, popular publications. The most-recent call from a magazine came from a writer at Popular Mechanics; the most-recent call from a paper came from a writer at The Wall Street Journal. I have provided information to staff at the National Electrical Contracting Foundation, to trial lawyers, and even to the Handyman Club of America. Both the union contractors' organization (NECA) and the non-union contractors' organization (IEC) have asked me to assist people who contacted them for electrical safety information they were not equipped to provide. I contracted to draft a proposed American National Standard for the National Electrical Contractors Association on how to install wiring devices, items such as switches and receptacles.
I have published
numerous articles for electricians in all the trade magazines; and written on electricity and home
repair for periodicals ranging from Redbook and The Washington Post to Practical Homeowner,
Fine Homebuilding (you can find me in their "Best of" publication), and New England Builder--plus various web sites.
I initiated a monthly Residential Wiring column in Electrical Contractor magazine, writing it from 1989 to 1992 and then
resuming from 1999 to the present. While its Washington-area web site was maintained, I had a contract to provide safety advice to my colleagues
in the online column, "Safewatch."
My first book, Old Electric Wiring: Maintenance & Retrofit (McGraw-Hill, 1998) was the only one on its subject. My second, Your Old Wiring (McGraw-Hill, 2000), serves readers who lack the background to get full benefit from my first book -- including people with no electrical experience. A third is in the latter stages of preparation: Behind the NEC, an exploration of the bases for rules in the electrical code, written with my mentor, the late W. Creighton Schwan.
I contributed an award-winning safety column to Utility Fleet Management, periodic articles for National Safety Council publications, and regular features, mostly on safety, to Public Power magazine. I continue to periodically provide feature articles to IAEI News, the inspectors' magazine, as well as contributing highly respected reports of local educational meetings.
For more than 25 years, I have edited The Flexible Conduit, an 8-page monthly newsletter for electricians, inspectors and engineers affiliated with Mensa. Finally, my materials were distributed by New Jersey officials during 1993's National Electrical Safety Month; and some decades back, I produced and validated a test, Safety Awareness for Electricity.
I consult on, install, and repair wiring in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, and can
arrange to serve anywhere in Maryland or Virginia.
Some people just want the job done safely. They want a top person to do their work, whether it's
changing a light fixture or wiring a home. They do want to be billed fairly, to receive reliable
service and clear communication--to enjoy good value for their money. They're not interested in
shopping for the cheapest bid. They don't want a false bargain: a contractor who wins their job
by guaranteeing a low price, and cuts corners to make a profit.
{I'm not necessarily cheaper than the next contractor. In fact, anyone with a screwdriver and
enough guts will do for a customer who equates wiring that works with wiring that's safe.}
Obviously, there are limits to the types of installation I can perform. I am not expert in all areas of wiring, and I am not equipped to take on, say, an industrial job that requires a crew. Sometimes, though, I am invited to inspect, to evaluate, to specify. Sometimes, also, I can put a would-be customer in touch with someone equipped to handle a job I simply can't take on.
When others, amateur or pro, have hashed wiring, I can either tear it out and rewire, or, if you prefer, apply a higher level of judgement and skill, rescuing what I can for a safer, more legal system than you had.
As an expert on old wiring, I can address what the decades have left you, both good and bad.
I evaluate electrical systems for people buying property, or simply concerned about
their wiring.
How old is it? What's safe or unsafe? Can it support delicate electronic loads? Heavy machine or
heating loads? What are the cheapest options? The safest and most reliable? The most flexible?
{I am not a consulting engineer or architect; but I am knowledgeable, experienced, and a good communicator.}
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission says, "Check even problem-free wiring at least
every 20 years, once a house has reached 40."
I supervise and teach.
I can use your efforts to save you money, safely expanding your knowledge. Supervision is
limited to tasks that I can oversee adequately: I do not take responsibility for others' wiring.
This said, I have taught owners to wire their newly purchased homes, advised people rehabilitating old buildings, and more.
Another kind of supervision and teaching I offer is found in my writing and editing. I talk about that elsewhere; it is not directly germane to my contracting work.
If you are interested in the possibility of working with me, I have a fair bit of information to offer. Any customers, especially homeowners, who are new to working with contractors, may find some help in adjusting their expectations at this link. Look there for important information on labeling, and on fixture choice. Any customer who is planning out an electrical system may found some help here. If you are considering performing some of the work yourself, this link talks about how we might work together. Finally, if you're wondering how the different ways of working with me might effect what you pay, this is the link.
The next item you see will be the standard billing form that I use as a job invoice, and then sign to turn into your receipt. After that, my spelled-out Terms of Engagement.
3419 41st Avenue
Colmar Manor, MD 20722
(301) 699-8833 (voice/ machine) 9 a.m. - 9 p.m., outside of emergencies
FAX (301) 699-8830 (Checked rather irregularly)
My expertise is limited to electrical work. I do not claim competence at repairing paint, wood, masonry or plaster that may need to be disturbed, sometimes extensively, in the course of installing or repairing your wiring.
I encourage you strongly to be present as I work, in order to ask and to answer questions. Any work, especially work performed after a building is completed, can bring surprises. If you have me work alone, without a way to contact you, you are agreeing to accept the technical, cost-related, and aesthetic choices I make based on my good-faith interpretation of your wishes.
Appointments I take responsibility to keep my appointments, and if at all possible to call you if I am unreasonably delayed (more than 15-30 minutes). By making an appointment, you are agreeing to pay for a minimum of one hour of my time, unless you tell me a full day in advance that you want to reschedule or cancel.
My standard rates are $84.00 per hour for the normal field services of a master electrician. Normal field services have two characteristics. First, you are asking me to schedule your work during my normal hours and days, with normal priority. Second, you are asking me to install new wiring, or to repair or extend systems that in my judgment were wired and completed competently and professionally, and in accordance with applicable laws.
If you are available during my visit, I will inform you when I encounter dangerous or unprofessional installations. There are surcharges when, for example, I am potentially exposed to risk or liability by what was done before. Equally important, you need to know that equipment that was installed incompetently, or antiques that approach end-of-life, may stop working as the result of the disturbance associated with being examined; when this happens, the equipment's failure rarely is the responsibility of the person who examined it. I don't believe in Finagle's Law (a corollary to Murphy's Law), which says, "Once a job is botched, attempts to improve it make it worse." I do, however, know from rock-solid experience that when something is dangerous, "Just get it working" is not the way to go.
My normal field hours run from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, excluding holidays. I am quite willing to work outside these hours, if it is worth your while to pay extra. Please call no earlier than 9 am and no later than 9 p.m. except by prearrangement. In an emergency, of course, do call me any time at all.
My charges start when I leave for the job and end when I have returned. Depending on your location, and on whether I need to travel during rush hour (or encounter congestion for other reasons), this could mean the "meter" starts with $30 or $60 or $120 or more on the clock in addition to my one-hour labor minimum. After the first hour, I prorate charges to the nearest quarter hour. You can call me for the purpose of planning work, or to guide you in tracking down problems on your own, without charge, for a total of half an hour. After this, telephone time other than handling matters such as appointments may go on your bill as consulting. All time spent on "formal consultation," such as preparing depositions or reports, is billed. Take notes as I consult, and it’s informal. Ask me to write something up and sign it, and it becomes formal consultation. Ask me to testify, or sit down with an attorney and discuss testifying, and it’s formal consultation.
Two Important Points regarding consultation:
First, I only rely on my own notes. Therefore, since I do not take notes in the course of informal consultation,
only formal, when I have been hired for informal consultation there is little point in expecting me to remember later just what I had
concluded--and I cannot know how accurately you remember or recorded my comments.
Second, because no inspection is exhaustive (and because of the benefits of what psychologists call distributed exposure) future visits, by me or any other expert,
may uncover items that were overlooked during earlier consultations. All this said, the way I prefer to earn my living is doing my best to ensure people's safety.
Some services exceed the standard offerings of electrical contractors. When you need these, I add charges to the base rate of $84 an hour.
Premiums
Occasionally, customers put in sweat equity, which means that they perform specified parts of the job under my supervision. If you are interested in helping me on the job, please request guidelines. These explain what assistance I consider appropriate when I am taking ultimate responsibility for work, and detail the rates that apply.
I evaluate wiring and consult on wiring projects. I don't have a flat fee for safety surveys, for laying out jobs, for preparing specifications, and for other such tasks. Instead, I charge a consultation premium of $24 an hour, on top of my base rate, to help you in these ways. I also provide more formal "white collar" consultation; I charge a premium of $54 an hour for work that leads to depositions, formal reports, or other testimony; and for consultation on others' electrical books and articles, even ghostwriting.
I undertake follow-up work troubleshooting, rewiring, or otherwise completing installations and repairs begun by others. This may involve my exposing at least part of the previous work in order to evaluate it, after which I will determine whether it needs replacement. When I am hired to take over a job, I require a letter stating that the previous contract is closed uncontested; that there is no legal hindrance to my removing or changing what I find. While I will complete installations begun by others when I judge that it is safe to do so, I can not accept ultimate responsibility for any part of the wiring that I have not performed myself.
In addition to the premium for taking on this work, any surcharges described in the section that follows may apply. For example, when I consider something potentially unsafe to work on, if I agree to correct the wiring -- as opposed to simply ripping it out and rewiring -- a separate charge applies, beyond the premium for completing another's installation.
I charge a premium of $16.00/hour to take over legal, professional, non-hazardous work that another licensed electrician has left unfinished.
I charge a premium of $34.00/hour to work on previously-installed or -begun wiring that
was not properly covered by permits, or was wired unprofessionally, or both.
Surcharges I surcharge for work performed outside my standard schedule:
Rush jobs;
Evening, weekend, and holiday work;
and work beyond 7 1/2 hours in one day, which takes more out of me.
I also surcharge for work that may put me at any risk of harm (this is not limited to
electrical dangers).
Finally, I charge for working under unusually difficult or unpleasant conditions. Some of
these are under your control. One example is leaving the cat's litter box near where I am
to work. Another that may be less immediately obvious is leaving delicate items stored in
the areas I will have to get past in the course of my work, so I need to tiptoe around and to
gingerly restack your treasures before I carry a ladder through, or drag an extension cord
or cable. Some are not under your control: for example, sometimes the work means
plowing through fiberglass in an unventilated attic or clawing my way through a
crawlspace. Sometimes, the latter examples may constitute hazardous conditions, not
merely onerous.
Surcharges and premiums add together.
Calls to fix problems with my work are free, and I give them very high priority. When, however, it turns out that a problem for which I have been called back does not stem from my materials or workmanship, for instance when the problem represents the failure of marginal parts of your existing equipment that I did not fully rewire, the call is not free. When this turns out to be the case, if I rush out you will need to pay any extra charges rush priority entails.
Payment is due right away, at the time services are rendered, except when we have agreed to another arrangement beforehand. Following the week of work, payment is overdue, except when other arrangements have been made up-front. Interest is charged on any outstanding balance at the rate of 2% per month. Collection costs, including legal fees, accrue to unpaid bills. It is very important that you ask me questions, check assumptions, and discuss concerns as they arise, so that disputes are avoided.
I accept cash and valid first-party checks; no plastic.
When I mean payment is due right away, of course I mean valid payment via cash or a check that clears.
If I offer any break, say rounding the bill down a couple of dollars to the nearest five, or agreeing
ahead of time to accept a postdated check without charging interest, or combining my trip to your
job with a trip to your neighbors, it is contingent on immediate valid payment. Slow payment or a
bad check eliminates any breaks.
Materials I provide are billed at full retail list prices as specified in catalogs such as those published by Grainger's, Inc. and lighting manufacturers. I guarantee materials that I provide, just as I guarantee my work. If you want me to install extra-premium components, let me know and I will be happy to do so. For example, a regular 120 volt wall receptacle can cost less than a dollar or more than fifteen-and this is at the store, without my warranty. I will gladly install customer - provided materials that are legal and suitable, without any extra charge. However, you take full responsibility for the time involved in rejecting, installing, removing or replacing materials you provide that turn out to be defective or inappropriate. Warning: salespersons rarely know the Electrical Code; a fixture or other part is not necessarily appropriate for the purpose for which someone tries to sell it. Also, "I've seen something just like this elsewhere" doesn't make an installation legal. I can shop with you or as your agent, so that you pay what I would pay, plus the cost of my time. I do not, however, warrantee materials that I haven't sold you, marked up.
All work done by me or under my supervision will meet or exceed applicable National Electrical Code requirements. If you want something done that I believe does not meet Code, I will check with local authorities if I am unsure. If I remain convinced it is illegal, you are welcome to pay for any time you have had me put in, and find an alternate installer. All new wiring, including "Just run me one more outlet," requires a permit and, after it is completed, inspection. The rare exception is where a jurisdiction --at present this is restricted to D.C., locally--allows the use of a postcard permit, whereby you agree for me to certify the safty of my own work generally without their review.
When I design and run a job, I take responsibility for signing the permits and performing the work so as to pass inspection to Code. You are responsible for the cost of the permit and for obtaining it, and for paying for my time waiting for and meeting the inspector; or if you prefer and this is allowed (D.C. forbids it), meeting the inspector yourself after the work is complete.
I understand and agree to these terms Date: ______________
Signed____________________________________Print_______________________________
Phones: Day [Call between ____ a.m. and ____ p.m.]: _____--________--__________________
Fax ______-_______-_____________________
Eve. [_____ am- _____ pm] ______--________--___________________Add'l #, for ________ [ ___am.-__ pm]: _____-_________-_____
Email_______________________________________________________________________________________
Second adult's name or Co. name _____________________________________Email:<__________________________@__________________>
Address_______________________________________________________________________
Your address, if different than job address______________________________________________
If you'd like to work with me and are okay with my standard terms, I need this last set of information: names, phone numbers AND hours, address, email, and fax if available.
It also is extremely helpful to tell me
what
you need me to do and with what degree of urgency;
whether you have fuses or circuit breakers, and if circuit breakers, the brand if you know it;
how you came to me;
the name of the nearest cross street, plus any driving or parking suggestions;
and if any wiring at all
needs to be installed, your lot, square, subdivision, whose name the property is in and finally, if a building permit has been pulled, the permit number.
You can email this to me at