The city's electrician and contractor licenses
The city's Risk Reduction office issues licenses after a Prometric or ICC exam: contractor licenses, including general, electrical, plumbing and mechanical, and trade licenses, including journeyman and master electrician.
Before you agree to anything, put this to each electrician: "What state license or registration, if any, covers this work, and what is the number?" Write the answer down with the date. Ask, too, who will actually be at your house doing the work and who is in charge of it.
Drinking water, from the city's CY 2025 report
Manhattan's CY 2025 Water Quality Report gives the source of the city's drinking water as groundwater from 19 public water supply wells, located near the confluence of the Big Blue and Kansas rivers.
Start from what the house needs to do
A request such as "add an outlet" or "upgrade the panel" names a solution. It can help to describe the goal instead: a home office with a printer and monitors, a workshop with a table saw, a car you hope to charge in the garage, an electric heat pump replacing a furnace, a hot tub on the patio. Say what will run, where, and at what times of day. Then ask the electrician to explain what the house has now, whether it can carry the new load, and what choices exist if it cannot.
Map your breakers before the visit
Panel labels may no longer match the house. A little mapping ahead of time can help the electrician and save time on the clock. With a helper and a lamp or phone charger, switch off one breaker at a time and note which outlets, lights and appliances go dark. Write the result on a sheet and tape it inside the panel door. Leave alone any breaker you are unsure about, and do not remove the panel cover.
Old wiring behind an open wall
Remodels can bring surprises. When a wall comes open, an electrician may find cloth-covered cable, outlets with no ground, splices outside a box or an earlier owner's repair. None of that means the whole house needs rewiring, and none of it means it does not. Ask the electrician to show you what they found, explain what it means for the work you planned, and write any added price as a separate line before doing it. Ask what would be left as it is, and why.
Ceiling fans and heavy fixtures
A ceiling fan or a heavy light can pull on its box in ways a small fixture does not. If you are adding one, ask whether the box in the ceiling suits the weight and motion, how the electrician will tell, and what changes if it does not. For a fan, ask whether the wall switch will control the fan, the light or both, and whether a second switch or a remote is part of the plan.
Power to a garage, shed or workshop
Bringing power to a detached building is a job with several parts: the feed from the house, the route it takes, a subpanel or a single circuit at the far end, and the outlets and lights inside. Ask the electrician which of those your plan needs, how the cable will get there, whether a trench will cross the yard, and who calls to have buried utility lines marked before any digging. Ask how the lawn or path will be put back afterward.
Surge and backup questions
A whole-house surge protector at the panel is an option some owners ask about; ask what one would add to the price and what it does and does not cover. If you are thinking about a generator, ask how the electrician keeps it from sending power back into the utility's lines, whether that would be a transfer switch or an interlock, and which circuits it could run together.
When to switch a circuit off
Call the same day, and switch the circuit off at the panel if you can reach it safely, when you notice:
- a faceplate or cord plug that is hot to the touch;
- a smell of hot plastic or a fishy odor near a device;
- brown or black marks around an outlet;
- a breaker that will not stay on;
- a shock, even a mild tingle, from a switch or appliance.
Questions to bring to each electrician
Put the same set of questions to every bidder, so the answers can be set side by side:
- Is the price fixed, or billed by time and materials?
- Does this job involve any permits, who applies for them and are the fees in the price?
- Who will do the work, and who will be in charge on site?
- Can you list the work by circuit, device and fixture?
- Which walls or ceilings will be opened, and who patches them?
- Can you show proof of liability coverage and workers' compensation?
- How long will the power be off, and in which rooms?
- What does your written warranty cover?
Call your own insurer if you are unsure how a contractor's coverage relates to your policy.