When to Leave the Job to an Expert Electrician

There are always going to be a number of homeowners who are prepared to tackle a variety of DIY jobs and a good number of tasks might be completed to a reasonable standard and save on the cost of calling in someone with a skilled trade.

However, there are always going to be jobs that are best left to a professional and anything to do with electrics is one of the best examples, as any gaps in your DIY knowledge could be painfully and dangerously exposed.

Here are some of the main reasons why it pays to call in a professional electrician rather than go the DIY route, including getting to the bottom of why your circuit breakers keep tripping, why you shouldn’t ignore a flickering light problem, what a warm switch is telling you, plus some safety tips to avoid overloaded circuits.

Regularly replacing fuses?

Sometimes you can get clues that you have an electrical fault without something blowing up, but it definitely pays to take notice of those warning signs rather than keep finding a quick-fix DIY solution.

Circuit breakers frequently tripping is a classic clue that you might have an electrical fault that needs investigating by a qualified electrician.

Sometimes a fuse will blow and it’s a simple DIY job to replace the fuse and reset the circuit breaker, but if that is a regular event it could be telling you that you might even have a potentially dangerous fault with one or several circuits.

If you are regularly replacing fuses you might want to find an electrician here and ask a professional to take a look at what is causing that to happen so often.

Flickering lights are telling you something

If you get an unexpected reaction to turning an electrical appliance like a hair dryer in the bedroom on and the table lamp flickers in response to that action it could be an indication of a circuit problem.

Your lights should not dim or flicker every time you turn an electrical appliance on and this needs to be checked out by someone qualified who can test the circuits and see what needs to be done to stop that happening.

These might be the sort of things that you might get used to or accept over time as normal in your house, but they aren’t and by leaving it or trying to fix the issue yourself you run the risk of making matters worse or even raising the prospect of an electrical fire at some point.

Overloaded outlets

Something many of us are probably guilty of is overworking an electrical outlet with plug strips and multi-receptacle addons.

The obvious issue here is that you are asking that electrical system to work beyond the capacity it was designed for, which can be dangerous.

You wouldn’t knowingly compromise the safety of your home but overloaded power points and boards are doing just that, putting your electrical system under far greater stress than it was designed to cope with.

The best solution is to ask an electrician to add some extra outlets, which will instantly improve the appearance and safety profile of your home. Don’t be tempted to try and wire in an extra outlet yourself as you need to understand the specific capacity of each circuit.

Not so good to get a warm feeling

If you have any switches or power points that are warm to touch or even give off a mild electric shock this is not a situation you should leave alone.

Any sort of surface that has an electric current running through it and is warm to the touch needs to be investigated by a professional, and the same comment applies to any item that gives you a bit of a jolt when you touch it.

There are several things that could be causing these problems. It might be that your wiring system is getting too old and needs upgrading or it could be an indication of a fault. Either way, you should get someone who is professionally qualified to investigate the fault and come up with a solution.

It is a fundamental point to remember at all times that electrical systems are dangerous in the wrong hands and even if you consider yourself to be reasonably competent when it comes to DIY, this is an aspect of home maintenance and safety that always needs to be left to someone who is properly qualified and insured.

Jade Reynolds works for a home improvement store. Her favorite activity is providing advice for DIYers by posting on a variety of homeowner and small business blogs.