Residential Electrician in Los Angeles

What home electrical work does a residential electrician handle?

We handle the full range of home electrical work: outlet and switch repair, breaker replacement, circuit troubleshooting, GFCI and AFCI protection, ceiling fans, smoke detectors, EV charger circuits, and whole-home surge protection. We are also the residential electrician Los Angeles families use for bigger projects like panel changes and rewiring. Most repair visits land between $150 and $300, the typical range for the Los Angeles market.

• Outlet and switch repair: dead outlets, warm plates, loose plugs, and two-prong replacements
• Breaker replacement and troubleshooting when circuits trip or lights flicker
• GFCI outlets for kitchens, bathrooms, garages, laundry rooms, and outdoor areas
• AFCI breakers that cut power when they detect dangerous arcing in the wiring
• Ceiling fan installation, including bracing the ceiling box so the fan does not wobble
• Smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, battery or hardwired and interconnected
• EV charger circuits: dedicated 240-volt lines sized to your car and your panel
• Whole-home surge protection mounted at the panel

Some jobs are big enough to get their own pages. For recessed lights, dimmers, and LED retrofits, see our lighting installation service. And for everything else we do with wire, browse the full list of our electrical services.

A+ Electric & Plumbing, a licensed electrician and plumber serving Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley, is the residential electrician Los Angeles homeowners choose when they want both trades under one roof. So when a bathroom remodel needs a new circuit and a new drain line, you make one call, keep one schedule, and pay one invoice. Our residential plumbing team works the same project, often on the same day, with no finger-pointing between contractors.

Not sure where your job fits? Call and say what you see. Dead outlet, warm plate, breaker that trips. We triage it on the phone for free. Then you get a real price, not a guess.

Do I need an electrician for outlet or switch repair?

Yes, call an electrician when an outlet is dead, a switch plate feels warm, plugs fall out on their own, or you still have two-prong ungrounded outlets. Outlet and switch repair in LA usually runs $150-$300, a typical range for Los Angeles homes. And most visits take under 2 hours. A warm plate or a buzzing sound often means a loose connection heating up behind the wall.

Two-prong outlets deserve special mention because thousands of 1950s Valley homes still have them. They lack a ground wire, so surge protectors plugged into them do nothing. And modern three-prong plugs need cheater adapters. We can ground individual circuits, install GFCI outlets as a code-approved fix, or quote a larger update if the wiring is at the end of its life.

Troubleshooting works differently than a simple swap. First we test the outlet, then the circuit, then the connections upstream. That is because a dead outlet is often a symptom of a loose splice somewhere else. Diagnostic work from a home electrician in Los Angeles bills hourly at $58-$115, the going rate in the Los Angeles market. And we set the flat repair price before we start.

What does a home electrical safety inspection cover?

A home electrical safety inspection covers the panel, every breaker, grounding, a sample of outlets and switches, GFCI and AFCI protection, smoke detectors, and all visible wiring. It costs $150-$350, about what Los Angeles homeowners pay. And takes about 2 hours in most houses. You get a written report that ranks each finding by urgency, with a fixed price to fix each one.

• Panel condition: brand, amperage, corrosion, double-tapped breakers, and open slots
• Grounding and bonding, including the ground rod and the water pipe bond
• GFCI protection in kitchens, bathrooms, laundry, garage, and outdoor areas
• Outlet sampling for reversed polarity, open grounds, and worn contacts
• Smoke and carbon monoxide detectors: placement, age, and power source
• Visible wiring in the attic, crawl space, and garage, checked for damage and amateur splices

The report is not a sales pitch. Each item gets a photo, a plain-language explanation, and a severity rating: fix now, fix soon, or monitor. Prices sit next to each line. So you can hand the report to your insurer, your buyer, or your own to-do list. In fact, many clients fix 2 or 3 urgent items right away and schedule the rest.

When should older Los Angeles homes get an electrical inspection?

Book an inspection every 10 years for homes built before 1980, plus once at buy and once before any remodel. Builders put up most of the Valley between 1950 and 1975. So the wiring in Van Nuys, Sherman Oaks, and North Hollywood is often 50 to 70 years old. Insulation gets brittle, splices loosen, and panels from that era carry known defects.

Pre-1950 houses in Studio City, Burbank, and Glendale sometimes still run knob-and-tube, the original two-wire system with no ground path. It handled a radio and three lamps fine. But it was never meant for a modern kitchen. When we find it, we map how much remains, then price updating the old wiring circuit by circuit so you can phase the cost.

How much does a residential electrician cost in Los Angeles?

Expect $58-$115 per hour for troubleshooting. And flat prices for defined jobs: $150-$300 for outlet or switch repair, $180-$350 for a GFCI outlet, $150-$400 for a ceiling fan, and $300-$700 for whole-home surge protection. EV charger circuits run $800-$2,000, plus panel work if your service is too small.

Common residential electrical prices, typical ranges for the Los Angeles market

These are typical Los Angeles ranges for orientation, not a quote. Every job is priced by its own conditions, so your exact number comes from a free on-site look. Get a free estimate in minutes, or call (818) 421-5290.

Why the ranges? Access and age drive the price more than parts do. For example, a switch swap in a 1990s Northridge house takes 30 minutes. Meanwhile, the same switch in a 1952 Sherman Oaks bungalow may hide brittle insulation that needs careful handling. Booking a residential electrician Los Angeles residents trust should not feel like a gamble. So we set the exact price before work starts, not after.

What happens when you call us for house electrical repair?

House electrical repair with us follows the same 5 steps every time: a short phone call, an on-site diagnosis, a written price, the repair itself, and a final test with you watching. Most single-issue visits wrap up the same day, usually within 2 to 4 hours of arrival. You approve the exact price before we start, so nothing on the invoice surprises you.

1. Tell us what is happeningabout 5 minutes

   Call (818) 421-5290 or request a free estimate online. Describe the symptom, the age of your home, and your neighborhood. So we arrive with the right parts on the truck.

2. We diagnose on site30 to 60 minutes

   The electrician tests the circuit, opens the suspect boxes, and traces the fault to its source instead of guessing at symptoms.

3. You get the price in writingabout 10 minutes

   Before any repair begins, you see the flat price and exactly what it includes. Say no, and you owe nothing beyond any agreed diagnostic time.

4. We do the repair1 to 3 hours for most repairs

   We fix the fault, replace worn parts with code-rated hardware. And label the panel so the next person knows what feeds what.

5. We test it with youabout 15 minutes

   You watch every outlet, switch, and breaker work before we leave. And your invoice lists the warranty terms in plain language.

One more step worth taking before we arrive: verify our license, free, at the Contractors State License Board. Every residential electrician Los Angeles homeowners let into their house should pass that 2-minute check. And we encourage it on every single job.

Do I need a permit for electrical work in Los Angeles?

Yes, most electrical work beyond a like-for-like repair needs a permit: new circuits, panel changes, EV chargers, and rewiring all qualify. In the City of Los Angeles, which includes Valley neighborhoods like Van Nuys, Encino, and Woodland Hills, permits go through LADBS. Burbank and Glendale run their own building departments with their own inspectors. We pull the permit and include the fee in your quote.

LADBS is the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety, the office that issues permits and sends the inspector who signs off on the work. You can read the permit rules yourself at ladbs.org. A permit protects you twice: the inspection catches mistakes. And the record proves the work was legal when you sell. Unpermitted electrical work surfaces in escrow more often than sellers expect.

Simple swaps usually skip the permit: replacing a broken switch, a worn outlet, or a light fixture on an existing box. Anything that adds load or touches the panel does not skip it. When we quote, we tell you whether the job needs a permit, what it costs, and who schedules the inspection (we do).

Frequently asked questions