Mid-Century Homes: How Long Do You Wait For An Electrical Service Upgrade? | Hurst, TX

The home building boom in Hurst, TX and the Tarrant County area began in earnest in the 1950s, took off in the 1960s, and continued to peak until well past the turn of the millennium when it dropped off. How many in the first waves of these homes have upgraded their electrical wiring since then? What kind of wiring did they have originally? And how many homeowners in the area still have old wiring, fuses, and two-pronged outlets, no GFCI, and other remnants of the past? In many cases, step-by-step upgrades can at least add some important features such as grounded outlets and GFCI protection in kitchens and bathrooms, additional outlets in rooms with many devices needing power, and perhaps a switchover to circuit breakers from fuses. An electrical inspection is an excellent way to find out where you stand and what priorities are suggested for homeowners like yourself, and when you talk with one of our electricians at Tioga Plumbing & Electric who serve the Hurst, TX area, they can offer ideas of how to actually improve your lifestyle with electrical upgrades, for example in ways other homeowners in the area have done.

Safety, Convenience, and Quality of Life

Electricity is a leading cause of home fires and has the ability to injure people who come into contact with it accidentally. It’s also a great source of convenient services from internet searches to dishwashing and cool induction stovetops. You can rely on our electrical service team to help you sort out the risks and dangers and make sure that you have easy access to power where it’s convenient for you. With electrical inspections, upgrades, and new installations for outdoor lighting, kitchen remodeling, and other exciting changes, there’s a lot our electrical team can do to help improve your quality of life.

Electrical Panel Upgrades

The heart of your home’s electrical system as well as its expansion and upgrade potential is your electrical panel. A typical panel has typically been designed to last for 25 to 40 years, but in modern times things are changing more quickly. Our electrical service team can tell you whether yours is up to date, has concerns that should be addressed, or still has fuses and really needs to be brought into the 21st century. There are two important considerations for your electrical service: ensuring that you have enough power coming into your home for all your needs and reasonable future expansion and making sure that you have enough space in your breaker box to add more breakers and with them, new circuits when you need them around your home. If you have specific power needs such as EV charging, workshop 240 Volt power, and backup power from a generator, our electrical service specialists can help you design your panel to meet those needs.

Wiring Replacement

There are several reasons that your wiring might need replacing, including outdated wires that are starting to show their age and risk short circuits and other hazards, the aluminum wire that may work fine, but is outdated and has many risks when spliced or used with modern outlets, and wires that were improperly installed such as 15 Amp wires handling a 20 Amp circuit. Our electrical service team can help address specific problems with your wiring as well as a general need to upgrade if your wiring is old and worn, affected by animals or other damage, or made of materials that including the conductor and the insulation that need to be replaced. Our electrical service experts may also recommend changes in wiring that are not up to code, for example, the unprotected wire that’s run outdoors or underground incorrectly, staple to beams, or otherwise risky.

Outlet Modernization

If your outlets only have space for a two-bladed plug, perhaps not even one that’s “polarized” with one blade slightly wider than the other, you’re probably doing all sorts of things to adapt. In the years since your home was built, electricians have been installing grounded outlets for safety and GFCI outlets where water is nearby to provide an extra measure of protection against electrical shock. The newest innovation is child-resistant outlets that open only if two blades of a plug are inserted, not a single piece of metal such as a knife. New outlets in recently constructed homes are also spaced about six feet apart, providing plenty of places to plug in for most families and attempting to reduce or eliminate the unnecessary use of extension cords. Some folks have been buying grounded outlets as replacements when their old outlets break but installing them with only two wires so the ground protection feature isn’t actually available. That can be confusing since three holes in an outlet means “don’t worry, I’m grounded.” It’s important that your outlets be truly grounded for your protection, and our team can take care of it.

Safety Features to Add

In addition to GFCI protection devices that sense current flow that could indicate someone’s getting a shock and shut off, there are many other features we can add to your home’s wiring. Two popular ones are a whole-house lightning arrestor and a whole-house surge protector, covering all your home’s circuits instead of just the devices plugged into one of those box-store power strips. New AFCI breakers detect “arcing and sparking” issues and shut circuits down for fire prevention.

For All Your Electrical Service Needs, Your Local Hurst, TX Professional Electricians

Tioga Plumbing & Electric electricians provide residential and commercial electrical service and have extensive experience with upgrading electrical service for homes in the area, so we know what’s in the walls of construction that took place in the area during each decade. Let us bring your home up to the current safety and fire protection code, add features that you’ll enjoy, and prepare your available power and circuits to meet your needs and add value to your home. Give us a call and arrange an electrical inspection of your home today.

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