I am Larry Dimock. Born in 1947, married in 1968, I have five grown children, and like to play backgammon. I grew up in Antioch CA and in Seattle and graduated from West Seattle High, U. of Washington (Philosophy), and Harvard Divinity School (M.Div.).
Professionally, I learned the electrical trade (starting in 1977) at MonArc Electric, Sno-Valley Construction, and Nims Electric. My Washington State electrical journeyman number is DIMOCL219R4. I am certified by the state as a Master Electrician.
In business since 1982, and operating out of my home (4938 326th Ave NE, Carnation, WA 98014), I developed a strict specialization in troubleshooting home electrical malfunctions in 1997. I use the name "The Circuit Detective" to indicate this troubleshooting emphasis. The official company name is Short Stop Electric, Inc. My Washington Electrical Contractor's License is SHORTSE185CD, and I am bonded. I am the administrator required by the state to oversee an electrical contractor's operations; I had to pass a five-hour test to be certified in this capacity.
My aim in business is to make a living offering a valuable service in a responsible personal way, so I have never been interested in getting bigger.
Soon after those graduate studies long ago, I went into the Protestant ministry. But four years into that, it occurred to me that the Catholic Church was the one that had been kept apostolic (true to what Christ had entrusted to the apostles). I promptly resigned to become a Catholic. As uncommon as such a move was then, it is not uncommon now. Just Google these words together: protestant pastors catholic converts.
With a (non-Catholic and nonplussed) wife and two children, I was unemployed. From my background I would never have thought to go into the electrical trade. But I had to think fast of a field that could put bread on the table again. It was somewhat arbitrary. My studies had been in philosophy and theology. I worked with ideas and people, not objects or technology. Maybe I wasn’t all that good at what I had been doing any way.
I did consider that something using my hands, something concrete rather than so abstract, could be a good change. Like what? Carpentry, police work, driving taxi? The relative of a friend ran an electrical contracting business but didn’t need new help. But the concept of electrical work -- whatever that consisted of -- grew on me a little as I took on various stop-gap temporary jobs. A few months later this same contractor suggested I go to the apprenticeship night-school sponsored by a contractors’ organization.
So I went back to school. The first day I didn’t know if it was for people who wire table lamps or who wire cars or who wire buildings. It turned out to be buildings. After about a month, my deskmate said his boss was looking for more help. I was in. It was indeed a new world -- wiring new houses. Hard work. Hard to understand all the details and all the reasons things were done the way they were. Electrical work does use the mind to a good degree, as well as the body.
When the boss’s work overload subsided, a larger company was willing to overlook my "over-education in the wrong direction" and hired me on the basis that I already had a little experience now and wasn’t sick of the work. Yes, it was boom times in our area in the late 1970’s, and they were desperate. The journeymen taught me how to get fast and efficient. I had to teach myself how to do that without getting hurt. I mean, my injuries had to teach me. I learned to mount boxes, drill holes, pull cable, make connections, install breakers, read blueprints, please inspectors, and -- heaven help us -- wield a sledge hammer to drive an eight-foot ground rod all the way down into the pile of rocks they built some houses on. It was good to get home those days. And to go to bed early.
After a year, another contractor wooed me over to his operation, which had more variety -- like replacing fuseboxes with circuit breaker panels (in a single day, since there were actual people living in such houses). And crawling in attics and under-floor spaces to add a few outlets to a home. When you have a job to do, little things that used to bother you -- like spiders and, oh, getting shocked -- are put up with as part of the job.
I got to help in some lightweight commercial wiring too, but the residential work was, you could say, closer to home. It fit me better. I liked being of direct use to people where they live, the way handymen are.
This contractor sold out to another company, where I finished my apprenticeship and got to deal with some ugly looking jobs -- restoring wiring for houses damaged by fires. The economy was also burning down, it seems, because these folks had to lay me off after two years. They suggested, though, that I could probably survive by going into business for myself. It sounded like a reasonable next step. I would like being my own boss. And not laying myself off.
Being in business is a different sort of job itself. I didn’t go the route of bank loans and accountants and hiring employees. I worked pretty much by myself, but to say that I worked entirely for myself is wrong. I worked for my customers. And they can become as directive and demanding as any employer. I just got to have more of them. If I disliked one enough, I could make my next bid to him unreasonably high. Employers can be laid off too.
In the first fifteen years of my electrical business I took on most any residential project that did not call for more than one person. I wired or rewired houses, apartments, mobile homes, even houseboats. Designing and installing were the main tasks, but I was regularly called on to deal also with malfunctions in what had already been installed (sometimes by me). Doping out these glitches in a wiring system appealed to the detective in me even then, I suppose. So when the physical aspects of work started to weigh more heavily on me, it occurred to me that this diagnosing of circuit problems might be a perfect way to use my experience into older age.
In the late nineties I made this transition into troubleshooting. Large companies can sometimes have one man specialize in "service" work, but for me to specialize, I had to make a habit of turning away all the customers who had projects in mind. I had to make myself more available, waiting to hear from, for instance, the desperate person whose kitchen lights or oven circuit has died the day before they are to host Thanksgiving there. And I had to expand my advertising and my territory. I spend as much time getting to jobs as working on them, because as I have become efficient at it, the average diagnosis and repair job takes less than an hour.
Why share my trade secrets on a website now? I suppose I hate to imagine people needlessly struggling with these problems when I’m gone. Electricians may be a disappearing breed, and only some of us have the knack for troubleshooting. Of those, few have the desire or the patience to convey this technical wisdom (a forensic art and science) to one or two more generations. In the future it may not even fall much to professionals to work on old wiring malfunctions. I do, in fact, intend this site mostly for the homeowner, the landlord, the do-it-yourselfer, the handyperson, and the handy neighbor or relative. But the general electrician should benefit from it too.
With gas prices pushing travel fees up, and with fewer skilled workers in the trades, more people are getting a do-it-yourself attitude around the home. But some electrical problems can be discouraging to the independent-minded homeowner. Yes, you still need an expert against circuit malfunctions and mysteries occasionally. Hope that you can find a good one! But you don’t necessarily need someone to come to your place for a shocking fee.
After 26 years working for the public as a one-man electrical contractor for homes -- the last 11 years doing strictly troubleshooting -- I have a good sense of what is likely going on in homes of different ages. A good number of calls already come to me in my local area that I help out simply on the phone -- and they were all ready to have me come to their house. I figure that doing the same thing long distance across the country makes sense.
Handy homeowners with electrical problems often tell me they wish there were a wiring diagram for their home, like there are for some appliances. Well, houses normally get wired without a preset plan, but there is some rhyme and reason to where the circuits run, and I am aware of this horse sense. I guess I am as close as we can get to a diagram.
While I'm at it, may I give a plug for my son's site for window cleaning Issaquah-Redmond-Kirkland and for the site for my Dad's books?
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