Top Ten Electrical Repairs When Purchasing a Home
Ever wonder what a Professional Electrician repairs when he purchases a home and wants to make sure it’s safe? Here is our list of the Top Ten Electrical Repairs required when purchasing a Home.
The Number 1 Electrical Repair for Safety – Smoke/CO Detectors

The smoke alarm system is immediately updated to at least one combination smoke/CO detector on each level (including crawl spaces). Depending on the age of the building the original hard-wired system can be renewed or new battery operated – wirelessly interconnected units (with 10 year battery life) installed.
2. The distribution panel, whether it is breakers or fuses, is checked to make sure that the main shut off works properly. If not, replacement becomes the priority project before anything else. If the main shut off operates just fine, then all the internal connections are checked in the panel itself.
3. Breakers or fuses are checked to make sure they are the compatible with the loads and wire sizes they control. Incompatible equipment is replaced.
4. If the distribution panel is controlled by fuses the next step is to install “fuse rejecters” to prevent oversize units from being installed.
5. The entire panel is labelled to identify what is controlled by each breaker or fuse.
Electrical Repairs – Replacing Outlets and Switches
6. All the outlets and switches get replaced. This is like a tune-up for the entire home. Any loose connections are repaired in the course of the replacement, and the benefits of Tamper Resistant (keeps the little ones from sticking foreign objects in the device) outlets are added. Any area (bathroom, kitchen, laundry, outdoors) that requires GFCI protection receives it.

7. All light fixtures are dropped, cleaned, connections remade and reinstalled. Any new fixtures would be installed at this time. Many choose this time to install LED bulbs to lower the load on the air conditioning and lower the hydro bill.
8. Surge protection is installed at the breaker panel.
9. If the home has a fuse panel individual surge protected outlets are installed at entertainment centres, computer centres and at strategic electronic devices such as washing machines, fridges, microwaves and security systems.
10. Coded equipment such as door locks and garage door opener keypads are reprogrammed.
Even though this checklist for electrical repairs would be completed by a professional electrician an Electrical Safety Authority permit must be filed and a Certificate of Inspection issued. This is to provide documentation that the work has been completed to Code requirements and is insurance worthy.