Published, including the parts that are awkward
What we charge
Every service page on this site publishes the range that job actually lands in. This page explains the fixed fees, why we charge for diagnosis when others advertise it free, and what would make your job land at the top of a range rather than the bottom.
Why we charge for diagnosis
“Free estimate” is straightforward for defined work. If you want a panel replaced, an EV charger fitted or a lighting scheme designed, we will come and price it and that visit costs you nothing.
It stops being straightforward when the question is why is half my apartment dark. Answering that is not an estimate — it is the skilled part of the job, and it takes as long as it takes. A contractor who advertises it free has not made it free; they have moved its cost into the price of whatever they then recommend, which gives them an interest in recommending something.
So we charge $165 for the first hour, we say so on the telephone before setting off, and if you go ahead with the work the same visit it comes off the price. If the answer turns out to be a $12 device and twenty minutes, you pay for the hour and keep the rest of your money.
Why the ranges are wide
Because access is the variable, and it can move a price by a factor of three. The same rewire, the same circuit count, the same fittings: a house with an accessible basement, a floored attic and a clean stack of closets is the bottom of the range, and a house with a finished basement ceiling, a crawl attic and plaster-and-lath walls is the top of it.
We could publish only the low number. It would make us look cheaper than everybody and it would be a lie about half the houses in this neighbourhood. The honest thing is to publish both ends and tell you which one you are in once somebody has looked.
What moves a job up a range
No basement or attic access. Plaster and lath rather than plasterboard. Finished surfaces that cannot be disturbed — landmarked plaster, a co-op board with rules, a new kitchen. Long routes to the panel. Old service equipment that has to be dealt with before anything else can happen. Work that has to be staged around a tenant or a trading business. And discovering that a previous owner's work has to be corrected before the new work can be connected to it.
What we will not do
Today-only pricing, which does not exist here and is a technique rather than a discount. Quoting a number over the telephone for work nobody has seen. Charging a separate call-out fee on top of an hourly rate. Or presenting a survey's findings as one urgent package when they belong in three tiers.
Every service, with its range
Published prices across the whole list
The same figures that appear on each service page, in one table. Each is the range that job actually lands in for a Queens house or small building.
Questions people actually ask
Prices — frequently asked
How much does an electrician cost in Woodside, NY?
Our diagnostic visit is $165 for the first hour, which covers finding out what is actually wrong. Beyond that we quote the job rather than the hour, and every service page on this site publishes the range that job usually lands in. Those are honest ranges rather than teaser numbers: the low end is a straightforward version of the job and the high end is one with a hard access problem, and we will tell you which one you have after we have looked.
Do you charge for a quote?
Not for a quote on defined work — a panel replacement, an EV charger, a lighting scheme. We do charge for diagnosis, because finding out why half your apartment is dark is the skilled part of the job, and “free estimate” is how that cost gets hidden in a price later. The $165 diagnostic hour is credited against the work if you go ahead the same visit.
Do you offer a guarantee that my home is safe?
No, and neither can anybody else. We guarantee our own workmanship, in writing, for two years on labour. What we cannot do is certify a building, because an inspection reports on what was accessible on the day and we cannot see inside a finished wall. A contractor who offers to certify your home as safe is offering you a feeling rather than a finding.
Do you do small jobs?
Yes. A dead outlet, a fan that needs a rated box, two dimmers and a doorbell. Small jobs are how most people meet an electrician, and we would rather do yours properly than tell you we only take rewires.
What if I just want a second opinion?
That is a good use of the $385 inspection, and we are asked for it regularly — usually after somebody else has quoted a rewire. You get a written report on what we found, and if the first contractor was right, we will say so plainly.
Somebody who does the work will come and look
Book a visit
Telephone the shop and you will get an electrician rather than a call centre. For defined work — a panel, a charger, a lighting scheme — the quote is free. For a fault, the visit is the diagnosis and it is $165 for the first hour, credited against the work if you go ahead the same visit. Either way we will tell you on the telephone which one it is.