Inspection Repairs
Electrical repairs for home inspection items.
Fast, documented electrical corrections for real estate transactions across Spokane, Spokane Valley, Liberty Lake and the surrounding area, plus electrical safety inspections for homeowners.
What we do
- Corrections from inspection reports
- GFCI and AFCI additions
- Double-tapped breaker corrections
- Grounding and bonding fixes
- Open box and cover corrections
- Smoke and CO detector installation
- Whole-home electrical safety assessments
- Documentation for closing
Common jobs we handle
- Correct a repair addendum before closing
- Add GFCI protection in kitchens and baths
- Fix double-tapped breakers
- Close open junction boxes
- Correct reversed polarity
- Assess an older home before purchase
When to call an electrician
- You're under contract with electrical items
- Your buyer's inspector flagged the panel
- You're buying an older Spokane home
- Your insurer asked for an assessment
- You're planning a remodel
- You want to know what's in your walls
Under contract and need electrical items corrected
If you're a seller with a repair addendum or a buyer negotiating one, the clock is the problem, not the wiring. We work transaction jobs as deadline-driven work: read the report, quote the electrical items, correct them, and hand back documentation the other side's agent can accept without a follow-up conversation.
Inspection repairs usually come with a contract deadline attached. Tell us your closing date when you first call and we'll tell you honestly what we can do.
Common electrical items on a Spokane inspection report
Spokane's housing stock is old. Spokane County Assessor data published by the City of Spokane in 2020 puts 19% of city housing units as built before 1940 and roughly 42% before 1970, with the average single-family detached home around 70 years old. These are the electrical items that come up over and over as a result.
- Ungrounded three-prong receptacles
- Missing GFCI in kitchens, baths, garages, and exteriors
- Double-tapped breakers
- Open junction boxes and missing covers
- Reversed polarity at receptacles
- Undersized or damaged service
- Exposed knob-and-tube
- Aluminum branch wiring
- Missing or improper grounding and bonding
- Panel clearance issues
- Missing smoke and CO detectors
- Damaged or worn devices
A double tap is the one that shows up most: two wires under one lug in the panel, which most breakers don't allow. It's a standard home-inspector flag and the most common finding in an old panel, and it's a straightforward correction.
Ungrounded receptacles in particular are usually an era issue rather than a defect: grounded three-slot receptacles weren't required throughout a home until the 1962 code. Where the wiring itself is the underlying problem, see whole-home rewiring; where it's the panel, see panel upgrades.
Send us the report
Email us the inspection report and we'll quote from the electrical section directly, item by item, using the report's own numbering so nothing gets lost in translation between agents.
Part of that quote is telling you what not to do. Inspection reports mix genuine safety defects with informational observations, and quoting every line item is how repair addenda get expensive for no reason. We'll separate the two and say which is which.
Documentation for closing
When the work is done you get an itemized invoice describing each correction performed, plus permit and inspection records where a permit was required. That's the paperwork the other party's agent is looking for, and it's what keeps a repair addendum from turning into another round of negotiation.
Electrical safety inspections for homeowners
The second half of this page is for people who aren't in a transaction at all: you're buying an older house and want an electrician's read on it, you're planning a remodel, your insurer has asked for something, or you'd simply like to know what's actually in your walls. Here's what a whole-home electrical assessment covers.
Panel and service
Panel condition and capacity, breaker sizing, the meter base and mast, and whether the service matches how the house is actually used.
Grounding and bonding
Whether a proper ground path exists, how the system is bonded, and what's missing.
GFCI and AFCI coverage
Where protection is required, where it exists, and where the gaps are.
Visible wiring type and condition
What eras are present: knob-and-tube, cloth-jacketed cable, modern NM, aluminum branch circuits, and their condition where accessible.
Device condition
Receptacles, switches, and fixtures: wear, heat damage, polarity, and grounding.
Smoke and CO detectors
Presence, placement, and whether they're wired the way they should be.
One honest caveat: no inspection sees inside every wall. Knob-and-tube in particular can turn up inside later remodels, so we'll never tell you a house is definitively free of it, only what we found and what we couldn't see.
Permits
Everywhere in the Spokane region except the City of Spokane, electrical permits and inspections come from Washington State Labor & Industries. Inside city limits, the City of Spokane runs its own electrical program, and any separate building permit comes from the city or the county.
Washington is currently on the 2023 NEC, effective April 1, 2024. Some corrections require a permit and inspection and some don't. We tell you which is which up front, because on a transaction timeline an unexpected inspection is the thing that moves a closing date.
What drives the cost
- Number of items being corrected
- Whether any item requires a new circuit or panel work
- Access to the affected areas
- Whether the service or panel is involved
- Permit and inspection requirements
- Schedule pressure from the closing date
We quote from your actual report rather than publishing a range, because two repair addenda with the same number of items can be completely different jobs. Send the report and you'll get real numbers against real line items.
Send the report and let's get it closed
Transaction repairs or a homeowner safety assessment: either way, start here. See all our residential electrical services or troubleshooting and repairs.
Inspection repairs across the South Hill, Spokane Valley, Liberty Lake, and downtown Spokane.
Service Areas
Local electrician across Spokane County & North Idaho
Frequently Asked Questions
How fast can you get out for an inspection item?+
We treat transaction work as deadline-driven and schedule it accordingly: tell us your closing date when you call and we'll be straight with you about whether we can meet it. We'd rather say no honestly than promise a date we can't hold.
Can you work directly from my inspection report?+
Yes, and it's the easiest way to do this. Send us the report, we'll read the electrical section, and quote from it item by item so you and the other party can see exactly what's being corrected.
Do I have to fix everything on the report?+
No. Inspection reports mix genuine safety defects with informational notes and general observations. We'll tell you which items are real code or safety issues, which are worth doing while we're there, and which don't warrant the money, instead of quoting the whole list.
Will you provide documentation for closing?+
Yes. You get an itemized invoice with a description of the corrections performed, in a form that agents on both sides can hand across the table.
What is a double-tapped breaker?+
Two conductors landed under one breaker terminal that's listed for a single conductor. It's one of the most common electrical items on a Spokane inspection report. The fix is usually straightforward (separating the circuits, adding a properly listed breaker, or adding capacity) but it should be corrected rather than ignored.
Where is GFCI protection required?+
In wet and damp locations: kitchens, bathrooms, garages, unfinished basements, crawlspaces, outdoors, and near laundry and utility sinks. GFCI requirements have expanded over successive code cycles, so older homes rarely have complete coverage and inspectors flag the gaps regularly.
Do you do electrical safety inspections for buyers?+
Yes. A whole-home electrical assessment is a good idea before buying an older house, before a remodel, in response to an insurance request, or simply to know what you have. It's not a home inspection. It's an electrician looking specifically at the electrical system.
Do these repairs need a permit?+
Some do, some don't. New circuits, panel work, and service changes require an electrical permit and inspection; a device replacement usually doesn't. Everywhere in the Spokane region except the City of Spokane, that permit comes from Washington State Labor & Industries: inside city limits, the city runs its own program, and the separate building permit comes from the city or county. We tell you which items need a permit before we start.
Ready to get electrical work handled the right way?
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