Urgent faults
Emergency Electrical Service in Sammamish
Some faults can wait for a convenient appointment. These are the ones that cannot.
What counts as urgent, and what to do first
If you can smell hot plastic, see scorching at a device, hear buzzing from the panel, or feel heat through a cover plate: switch that circuit off at the breaker and call. Those four move ahead of other work. We take urgent calls during our working hours and put them in front of scheduled jobs. We would rather tell you honestly that we can be there this afternoon than promise a time we cannot keep — and if what you describe genuinely cannot wait for us, we will say so on the phone and tell you who to call instead.
What happens when you call
Triage on the phone
A few questions settle whether this is switch-it-off-and-call-us or something that can wait for a booked visit.
Priority over scheduled work
Genuine faults go to the front of the queue inside our working hours, and the moved customers are told why.
Make safe first
The hazard is isolated before anything else happens; diagnosis follows.
A clear answer before repair
You learn what failed and what the repair involves before hours are billed against it.
Switch it off and call
A burning or hot-plastic smell
The most serious item here. Isolate the circuit if you can identify it and do not wait to see whether it passes.
Scorching at a device
Heat has already built at a connection. The outlet or switch is the symptom, not the cause.
Buzzing or heat at the panel
A loose connection there escalates. Not a wait-and-see fault.
A breaker that will not reset
It is doing its job. Forcing it repeatedly is how a fault becomes a fire.
How the work runs
Call and describe it
Plain words are fine; we will ask what matters.
Isolate
We will say what to switch off and what to leave alone while we are on the way.
Make safe
Hazard dealt with before anything else.
Diagnose and repair
Cause found, repair explained and priced, then carried out.
Questions about this work
Do you take calls outside working hours?
Our hours are on the contact page and that is when we can get a van to you. If something is actively dangerous outside them, switch the circuit off at the panel; if there is smoke or fire, call the fire service, not an electrician.
One room has no power. Urgent?
Usually not, provided nothing smells hot and nothing is scorched. Often a failed connection, and it can wait for a booked visit. Call and describe it.
The whole house is dark.
Check whether the street is dark too. If it is, that is the utility and they will be quicker than we will. If it is only your house, call us.
Not sure how urgent it is?
Describe it on the phone. Working out whether this needs us today costs nothing.