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How to Know When Your Home Needs Rewiring

Signs It’s Time to Rewire Your Home

Making sure your home’s electrical wiring is functioning properly is detrimental to your family’s safety. Not only can faulty wiring lead to a potential house fire, but it can also cause things like appliances, lighting, and other electrical devices to experience issues. Noticing the signs that your home needs to be rewired can save you a lot of trouble in the future.

Some signs are easier to notice than others, but if this is your first home, or you haven’t noticed problems before, here’s how you can spot when something is off with your electrical system.

1. Burning Smells

Do you suddenly smell a burning smell in your home that won’t go away? The source of the smell could be your wires. Faulty wiring and loosely connected wires can lead to shorts that create sparks that singe the wires. Shorts in wires can also singe outlets and walls.

If you smell a constantly burning smell in your home, call your local electrician to inspect your wire system. However, if you believe it is a more severe case, then you should contact your local fire department to also take a look in case of an emergency.

2. Discolored Outlets

It’s easy to know when your outlets and switches arent working properly or discolored from sparks. Brown and black marks on your outlets typically indicate that your wiring is faulty and something is wrong with the outlet.

3. Electrical Shocks

Have you ever touched a plug or tried to plug something in and felt a shock from the electrical outlet? Shocks are one of the most common signals that there’s a problem with your wiring. One way to know if the issue is the plug or outlet is by checking the cord for damage like rips, splitting, or exposed wires.

If you have seen a yellow spark from an outlet, this could be a major problem. Sparking can cause an injury, so if you notice it, we suggest contacting your electrician to test your outlets for damage.

4. Flickering Lights

Dimming and flickering lights is a sign of voltage fluctuation and indicate that your home needs to be rewired. While some lights like fluorescent lights always flicker, if you have LED or incandescent lights that flicker, then that is a problem that should be investigated. In some cases, the problem could also be loose wiring in your system that is also a fire hazard.

5. Frequent Circuit Breaker Tripping

Using too many extension cords and faulty wiring can cause an excessive amount of amperage. The best way to know if bad wiring is the reason for your circuit breaker tripping more frequently is by having an electrician inspect it for you.

6. Damaged or Cracked Insulation

Old wiring can cause cracked or damaged insulation. You can identify damaged insulation easily if you notice it drying or falling. We suggest addressing this issue because bad wiring can mean rewiring your entire home as a solution to the problem.

7. Faulty Light Fixtures

Maybe you have a light fixture that you love and lately, you’ve noticed the lighting is different. Signs like flickering lights or unexplained outages could mean there’s either an issue with the light fixture itself or the wiring to the fixture is faulty. Either way, you should always get this checked out by a qualified electrician since electrical issues are also safety issues.

Contact Meyers Companies, Inc. for Electrical Wiring in Griffith

If you have noticed one or more of these signs of electrical wiring problems in your home you should consider contacting an electrician to inspect your home’s wiring. Our electricians at Meyers Companies, Inc. offer professional electrical services and our electricians will take care of all of your electrical needs. Give us a call at (219) 240-0610 for more information.

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