I have focused my later years on being strictly a troubleshooter electrician. Bellevue, this means that your home's short circuit or dead outlets do not need an all-around electrician. He is likely busy with bigger things and does not gear himself day after day to diagnosis, repair, and relating to customers in their homes.
I am Larry Dimock, The Circuit Detective. In business on the Eastside since 1982, I have been limiting myself to home electrical malfunctions since 1997, and enjoying the resulting smiles of my clients. Though I live in Carnation, I have been happy to make myself the premier troubleshooter electrician Bellevue uses. To understand the scope of my work, see Eastside electrician. For more of the story behind me, see About.
My Rates
I charge $40 to come to your home in Bellevue. To that I add $1.00 per minute for the time I am working on your problem. Since the average job takes me 40 minutes for diagnosis and repair, the total bill tends to be $100 or less. Outfits that want you to agree to their "firm price" ahead of the work will cover themselves for worst-case scenarios. A true diagnosis of these circuit mysteries takes the majority of a troubleshooter's time, with a few minutes spent on the repair itself, typically.
My Availability
I don't like phone tag, so I purposely answer you personally by cellphone, Mon-Sat 7am-9pm: 425-333-4400. The work itself can typically be done within a day or two, Mon-Fri 9am-5pm (scheduling exceptions are possible).
Doing-It-Yourself
You might be interested to know that my main webpage -- Troubleshooting Home Electrical Problems -- is designed to help homeowners around the country with tips for solving their own electrical problems. If that might be you, work me out of a job!
Troubleshooting Stories from Around Bellevue WA
Small Job in Eastgate. What might be interesting in this story is not the details of a bad connection knocking power out to several rooms, but how I got the job. The homeowner told me he had found me by referral from someone at work. He described the outage and the fact that he had had a new electrical panel installed within the last year. After I had taken care of his problem, he revealed that before finding me, he had spent most of that day calling electrical contractors with attractive ads. He said none had called him back. I said, "Did you tell them that you had a new panel, like you told me?" He said,"Yes. why?" I said, "Maybe that's why they didn't call back." It is an unfortunate thing for the general public when so many electrical contractors gear themselves so heavily to upgrades that are much bigger than your basic need.
Detective Story from Crossroads. Bill reported lights and outlets being dead. No circuit breakers were tripped, he said, and he was correct. He showed me how the dining room light and all of the living room and hall were out. In cases like this, where part of a circuit has stopped working, I plug a loud buzzer I have into one of the dead outlets. That way, when I am in another room jostling suspect connections, I can hear if I get power restored, even if only for a split second. And that worked at Bill's house: when I wiggled the hall outlet, the buzzer went off. I proceeded to improve the connections at that outlet, and power was back permanently!
Faulting Line in Bridle Trails. Don was right to suspect that the ground-fault interrupter (GFI or GFCI) was tripping off for something outdoors. After all, his fountain was on that line, and we know that water and electricity don't mix without potential problems. An outlet or two in the living room were on the line affected by the GFI, and the GFI itself of course, which was in the garage. But as I got acquainted with the circuit, I discovered that an old refrigerator in the garage was actually responsible. With it unplugged, the fault was gone. If it was worth it to Don, he could have that fridge repaired. Another case closed by the troubleshooter electrician Bellevue uses in 98004, 98005, 98006, 98007, and 98008.
THE CIRCUIT DETECTIVE