Whitefish Bay Electrical Estimate and Free Electrical Service Bonus

I was on an interesting free estimate today in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, part of the North Shore of Milwaukee and Lake Michigan area. While there, I ended up providing some free electrical service as a bonus. Here are two of several photos I took of the main fuse panel and wiring. As far as the old 60 amp fuse panel goes, it was originally a very nice fuse panel. Now with the old fuse panel being about 70 +/- years old, it is tired and worn out. It is on its last leg and as you can see, it could have burned the house down. Do you have old fuses in your home?

I forgot to ask the tenant while I was there if they have working smoke detectors, I usually do that and even carry spare batteries just in case they are needed. While I’m on the subject, do you have smoke detectors, a carbon monoxide detector, and are the batteries still good? OK, back to the Whitefish Bay job. Smoke detectors, and now carbon monoxide detectors are needed and also required by law. They are especially needed with an old house with bad wiring and a burned up fuse panel. The old fused services are three times more likely to be part of a house fire. Fortunately, a sharp 14 year old son saw the first signs of a problem with the electrical system in the house. He got his dad and they investigated the old fuse panel in the basement.

As they were walking down the stairs to the basement, they started seeing smoke everywhere. That is a scary feeling, ask anyone who has experienced such an event. Everyone knows, where there is smoke, there is fire. They called an emergency electrician out to the home and he disconnected and removed the burning fused pull out. Unfortunately, it wasn’t Sparks that was originally called. This originally happened a month ago. The tenant that is occupying the home has been waiting for the Chicago owner to do something about it. Some of his power has been out in the house, including his gas furnace, most of the basement, and some of the first floor wiring was also out. Why the Chicago owner has not corrected this problem yet is any ones guess but I would like to think he just does not realize how bad and how dangerous the wiring problems are.

As I looked at the fuses, I replace two of his 15 amp fuse-stats, the two blue centered fuses on the right side toward the center of the panel. It is probable that the heat from the burning pullout overheated the fuses to the left allowing them to burn out. The other contractor gave a proposal 150% higher than what Sparks quoted and missed the blown fuses that were in plain sight. I did not need a tester to check the fuses, I could see they were bad. The tenant got his furnace restored, the basement lighting restored, and some of the wiring on the first floor restored, all for free because I was on a free estimate. Sparks Electric.com provides excellent top quality service at very reasonable prices, often far cheaper than the completion. All of this is provided without sacrificing on quality or safety, where we do not, where we will not compromise while providing the most outstanding service in the Milwaukee area.

I did not do any troubleshooting but they had some other needs that needed to be taken care. This is part of what the proposal was for. I called the Chicago owner regarding his property and faxed the proposal to him. I also sent an email with the photos I’ve taken. Hopefully he will see just how bad the wiring is and understand that it is critical for life safety and building safety to have a quality electrical contractor (like Sparks Electric) proceed with the needed repairs, replacement, and an upgrade before anything else bad happens.