Electrical faults and emergency call-outs
Power out, a breaker that will not stay up, a burning smell. We find the cause rather than resetting it and leaving.
Typically under 2 hours, 7 days
This is the page if any of these is happening
- Half the house has power and half of it does not
- A breaker or safety switch trips again the moment you push it back up
- A burning or fishy smell near a switch, a power point or the board
- Lights dimming or surging when the kettle or the aircon starts
- A power point that has gone brown, warm or crackly
Finding the fault, not just resetting it
A tripping breaker is doing its job. Something on that circuit is leaking to earth or drawing more than it should, and pushing the switch back up without finding out what changes nothing except how long you have until it happens again.
We isolate the circuit, split it and test section by section with an insulation tester until the fault has a location — an appliance, a light fitting, a cable that a ceiling insulation contractor stood on, or water that has found its way into an outdoor point. Once it has a location it has a price, and you hear that price before anything is repaired.
Most faults are found and fixed inside the first visit because the van carries the common parts. Where a repair needs a part we do not have, we make it safe, isolate that circuit only, and come back with the part rather than leaving you in the dark overnight.
What is included
- Attendance and diagnosis
- A licensed electrician on site, with the testing to identify what is actually causing it. Not a guess and a new breaker.
- Circuit isolation
- Where a fault cannot be repaired on the spot, that circuit alone is isolated so the rest of the house keeps running.
- Price before repair
- You are told what the repair costs and you decide. The diagnosis fee stands on its own and does not depend on you saying yes.
- Test and certify
- Everything touched is tested and an Electrical Safety Certificate issued where the work requires one.
- Written cause
- A plain-English note of what failed and why, which matters if you are renting the place out or claiming on insurance.
What a fault call-out costs
Fault finding is charged as a first-hour attendance that covers travel, diagnosis and minor repair. Anything beyond that is quoted before we do it.
- Standard hours attendance and diagnosis
- $1857am–7pm, seven days. Covers the first hour on site, including most small repairs.
- After-hours attendance
- $285Before 7am, after 7pm and public holidays. You are told the rate on the phone before we leave.
- Additional time on site
- $120 / hrCharged in 15-minute blocks after the first hour, only where the job genuinely runs long.
- Typical single-circuit repair
- $220 – $480Damaged cable section, failed fitting or a burnt-out point, replaced and tested.
These are indicative figures for standard domestic work in our service area. You always get the real number for your job before anything starts.
Before we get there
- 01If a breaker keeps tripping, leave it off. Repeated resetting into a fault is how a small problem becomes a fire.
- 02Unplug whatever was running when it happened. A failing appliance is the single most common cause and this often identifies it for free.
- 03Write down which lights and points are dead. It narrows the circuit before we walk in and can save you a chunk of the first hour.
- 04Clear access to the switchboard and, if the board is in a cupboard, take what is in front of it out.
Stop and read thisIf you can smell burning, see smoke, or there is water running into a switchboard or a light fitting, turn the main switch off and ring us from outside the room. Do not go back to it.
The same job, written up with the clock attached
5 out of 5
Rang at nine on a Sunday night expecting a message bank and got an actual electrician. He talked me through turning the right breaker off over the phone so we could sleep, then turned up first thing Monday. Ended up replacing the whole board, and the price he said on Monday morning was the price on the invoice.
Mark D.Joondalup · March 2026Read the job this refers to
What people ask about faults & emergencies
Do you charge a call-out fee on top of the hourly rate?
No. The attendance figure covers travel and the first hour on site, and it is the same whether you are five minutes away in Joondalup or up in Alkimos. There is no separate call-out line on the invoice.
How quickly can you actually get here?
For a genuine fault in our service area the typical time from your call to the van in the driveway is under two hours during the day. If we are further out we tell you the honest time on the phone rather than saying we are on our way and turning up at eight.
The power is out but the neighbours are out too. Should I still call?
That is a network outage, not a fault in your house, and you would only be paying us to tell you so. Check Western Power's outage page first. If your house is the only dark one, that is ours.
Will you fix it on the first visit?
About nine times in ten, yes — the van carries the common parts. Where a part has to be ordered we isolate the affected circuit so the rest of the house works normally, and we book the return before we leave.
Typically under 2 hours, 7 days
Ring it through and we will tell you which band it falls in.
We text when we are on the way, and you get the price before we start.
7:00am – 7:00pm, seven days · EC 13927
Often the next question
- 02
Switchboard upgrades
Ceramic fuses and no RCDs mean a board built for a house with one television. Replaced in a day, certified, with room left for what comes next.
- 03
Safety switches & testing
The only device in the house that protects a person rather than a cable. Fitted, tested and documented for owners, landlords and agencies.