Panels and service upgrades
from $1,450
Fuse box to breakers, or 100 amps to 200. Same spot, one day, power back on before we leave. The utility appointment is ours to make, not yours.
Haverbrook, Quarrytown, Redmill
and Bell Orchard since 1984
We have rewired some of these houses twice.
Clyde Pellow wired his first panel in Haverbrook in 1984. His daughter Josie holds the same master licence now, and between them they know which decade of wiring is behind which kind of wall, usually before the cover plate comes off.
The $180 check is credited in full against any work over $900. Something dead or hot right now is fault finding: $140 for the first hour, any evening until 10pm.
- Two master licencesClyde and Josie both hold one. Lic. #000000 (sample), renewed every two years.
- Insured and bonded$2,000,000 liability and $1,000,000 auto. Certificate sent before we start.
- Forty-two years on this gridFirst van out in 1984. About 6,100 houses logged since.
- 4.9 from 212 reviewsSample rating, shown here to illustrate the layout.
Clyde started in 1984. Josie holds the same licence now.
Clyde Pellow spent six years on the crews at the old Haverbrook Light & Power, then went out on his own in 1984 with one van and a ladder rack. Josie grew up pulling wire on Saturdays, took her journeyman ticket at 22 and her master licence at 28. The name on the van changed in 2016.
Between them they have been inside about 6,100 houses across eight towns. That is the only reason the decade panel below works. When someone says Marsh Lane, 1952, Clyde already knows the service is 60 amps, the cable has no ground, and the kitchen is sharing a circuit with the porch light.
- Two vans, three electricians, no subcontractors on a house
- Asa Crake has been the third pair of hands for nine years
- Every panel door is labelled by hand before we leave
- We keep the old panel photos, so a 1994 job still has a file
The six jobs that fill our week.
Prices are what we charge inside the four same-day towns, with permits and the county inspection already in the number. Houses are most of the work. Shops and rentals are the rest, and they get evenings.
Whole house rewires
from $9,800
A 1,400 square foot house, plaster kept wherever we can get a rod through instead of a saw. Our own plasterer follows us and patches what we opened.
Car charger circuits
from $1,180
A 48 amp circuit within 30 feet of the panel, with the load calculation done first so you find out before the concrete goes in, not after.
Circuits, outlets and lighting
from $290
An added kitchen circuit, outlets that stop working when the freezer starts, outside lights, a fan on an existing box at $145.
Safety checks and rental reports
$180 and $240
Ninety minutes, every circuit tested, the panel photographed, and a written list sorted into now, this year, and when you redo the kitchen.
Small commercial
quoted in writing
Shops on Sennett Street, two churches, a dentist and about 40 rental units. We work after closing where the work has to happen after closing.
Tell us the decade, and we will tell you what is behind your walls.
Houses around here were wired in waves, and each wave failed in its own way. Pick the decade yours went up and you will see the cable we expect to find, what tends to go wrong with it, what it costs to put right, and whether it would pass an inspection today.
Passes with notes60 amps, 100 on the later builds1950 to 1959
The cable is usually fine. The twelve circuits are not.
The capes and ranches through Quarrytown and Bell Orchard.
Cloth jacket over a paper filler. Two conductors, no ground.
How we tell without opening a wall. Open the panel door. Fifties cable is grey-white cloth, and the ground bar is empty.
Behind the plaster
Non-metallic cable with a cloth jacket and a paper filler, still two conductors and no ground. Most of these houses were built with eight to twelve circuits, which was generous in 1954 and is about half of what one kitchen needs now.
What goes wrong with it
- The jacket crumbles inside the panel, where every cable has been bent to the same breaker for seventy years
- Three-prong outlets fitted in the 1980s with nothing behind them
- One kitchen circuit now running a dishwasher, a microwave and a coffee machine
What it costs to put right
- Panel and service upgrade to 200 amps
- from $1,450
- Dedicated kitchen circuits with ground-fault protection
- $780
- Full rewire, 1,400 square feet
- from $9,800
Inspected today. Passes with notes if the cable is sound and every ungrounded outlet is protected and labelled. The kitchen usually fails on its own.
Book the $180 check on this house(555) 014-1984
Not sure of the year? Tell us the street. Clyde has probably been in the house.
A dead circuit tonight is not the same job as a rewire in April.
They are priced differently, booked differently and answered by different phone habits. Here is which one you are having.
Something is dead, hot or tripping
$140
First hour, then $95 an hour. No call-out fee on top.
- We answer the phone ourselves until 10pm, seven days a week
- Usually there in 40 to 70 minutes across the four same-day towns
- Most faults are found and fixed inside the first hour, and we say so on the phone
- If it is safe to wait until morning, we will tell you that instead of driving out
Burning smell, a warm cover plate, water in the panel, or a breaker that will not reset: switch that circuit off at the panel first, then call. Do not reset it twice.
Work you are planning
$180
The safety check, credited in full against any job over $900.
- The check, this weekNinety minutes in the house, with the written list at the end of it.
- A fixed price in three daysItemised and held for 60 days, permits and inspection included.
- The work, about three weeks outWe book a start date, and rewires run nine days with the family still in the house.
What the jobs on our invoices actually cost.
These are the twelve things people call about, with the prices we quote in the same-day towns. Work after 6pm adds $60. Anything we find once a wall is open gets priced before we carry on.
- Whole house safety check, 90 minutes, written report
- $180
- Fault finding, first hour
- $140
- Fault finding, every hour after the first
- $95
- Panel replaced in the same spot, 200 amps
- from $1,450
- Service upgraded to 200 amps, utility work included
- from $2,850
- Full rewire, 1,400 square feet, plaster patched
- from $9,800
- One added circuit for an appliance or a workshop
- $290
- Aluminium connection repaired and pigtailed
- $18 a device
- Car charger circuit, 48 amps, within 30 feet of the panel
- from $1,180
- Ceiling fan or fixture on an existing box
- $145
- Generator inlet and panel interlock
- from $890
- Rental safety report, up to four units
- $240
The $180 comes back off the first real invoice
Book the check, get the written report and the panel photos, and if you go ahead with anything over $900 within 90 days, the $180 comes off it. About two thirds of the checks we do turn into work, and about one in five turn into nothing at all, which is also a fine outcome.
Book the checkFour towns get us the same day.
The same-day towns sit inside the old Haverbrook Light & Power district, fed from the Moss Road substation. It is also the housing stock we know best: 1911 to 1974, and a lot of it wired by people Clyde worked with.
Same day, most days before 5pm
Typically 40 to 70 minutes from the call
- HaverbrookHome town. The shop is at 12 Marsh Lane
- QuarrytownSix minutes down the valley road
- RedmillThe 1960s subdivisions we pigtail every month
- Bell OrchardMost of our rental work sits here
Next morning
Booked the night before, first call of the day
- Pitt HollowWartime houses, mostly 60 amp services
- Cobble RidgeSplit levels and the panels from the 1970s
Thursdays, planned work only
One van out there all day, booked two weeks ahead
- Sperry LakeCottages, docks and seasonal shut-offs
- Tamlin MillsThe mill conversions and the flats above the shops
Outside these eight towns we will still answer the phone and tell you what we would do, and if it is urgent we will name someone closer who will be there faster than we can. A van that takes 50 minutes to arrive is not an emergency service.
Three houses from this spring, with the numbers.
1911 farmhouse, Marsh Lane
- Before
- Knob and tube through the attic, buried under blown-in insulation, on 60 amp fuses. Two bedrooms shared a circuit with the well pump.
- After
- 200 amp service, 24 circuits, arc-fault protection on the bedrooms, and the plaster patched by our own plasterer.
Nine working days. $12,400. The family slept in the house every night of it.
1968 ranch, Redmill
- Before
- Aluminium branch circuits, three cover plates warm to the hand, and an insurer asking for a letter by the end of the month.
- After
- 63 devices pigtailed with the approved connector, every joint photographed, the letter written the same afternoon.
One day. $1,190. Policy renewed without a surcharge.
1952 cape, Quarrytown
- Before
- Cloth-sheathed two-wire cable, 60 amp fuses, and the kitchen sharing a circuit with the porch light and the garage.
- After
- New 200 amp panel, two counter circuits with ground-fault protection, and the sound cable left exactly where it was.
Two days. $2,310, after the $180 check came off the invoice.
Two of these three called Clyde first in the 1990s.
Sample reviews, written for this demo
“Clyde put my panel in in 1998 and Josie did the kitchen circuits last spring. She had his photo of the old fuse box in the file and showed it to me on the step.”
“They quoted a full rewire and then talked me out of two thirds of it. The attic run needed doing, the rest could wait five years. That is the quote I kept.”
“Half the house went dead at eight on a Tuesday. Josie was here by nine, found a scorched connector behind the dryer outlet, and we had power back before bed.”
From your call to the label on the panel door.
1The check, $180
Ninety minutes. Every circuit tested, the panel photographed, the outlets sampled room by room. You get a written list split into now, this year, and when you redo the kitchen.
2A fixed price, in three working days
Itemised, in writing, held for 60 days. Permits and the county inspection are inside the number. If we find something once the wall is open, you see the price before we carry on.
3The work, then the label
Dust sheets down, power back on every night, and the panel door labelled by hand before we leave. We keep a copy, which is why a 1994 job still has a file here.
The questions Josie answers on the phone every week.
If yours is not here, call (555) 014-1984. One of us picks it up, and nobody will read you a script.
Do I need a rewire, or just a new panel?
Most houses we inspect need the panel, the kitchen and the attic run, and then nothing for another ten years. A full rewire is the honest answer in about one house in six built before 1950. The $180 check is what tells you which one you have.
Is the $180 really credited against the work?
In full, against any job over $900 booked within 90 days of the check. It shows as a line on the invoice so you can see it come off. If you never book the work, you still keep the report and the photos.
Can you tell what is behind the walls without opening them?
Nearly always. The panel, one outlet, the basement ceiling and the attic give us the decade and the cable, and forty-two years in these towns fills in the rest. We open a wall only where what we find does not match what the house should have.
My house has aluminium wiring. Will my insurer drop me?
Not if the connections are repaired with the approved copper connector and you can prove it. We photograph every joint and write the letter insurers ask for. Reckon on $1,150 to $1,900 for a three-bedroom house, done in a day.
Who comes out at night, and what does it cost?
Josie or Clyde, until 10pm, seven days. $140 for the first hour and $95 an hour after it, with no separate call-out fee on top. After 10pm, switch that circuit off at the panel and call us at 7am. We will tell you on the phone whether it can wait.
Do you do commercial work?
Small commercial, yes: shops, a dentist, two churches and about 40 rental units. Anything over 400 amps, or three phase, we will tell you honestly that it is not our trade and give you two names who do it well.
Do you charge for a quote?
No. The $180 buys the inspection and the written report. Pricing the work afterwards is free, and so is talking you out of work you do not need.
Book the $180 safety check.
Josie calls back within one working day with two dates. Ninety minutes in the house, a written report with photos, and the $180 credited against any work over $900.
(555) 014-1984, answered until 10pm
12 Marsh Lane, Haverbrook
Office open Monday to Friday 7:30 to 5, Saturday mornings
Master electrician Lic. #000000 (sample), two held. Insured $2,000,000 and bonded.