Find Houston-area electricians — and see which ones we've confirmed with the business.

Hiring an electrician in Houston

Electricians are licensed in Texas by the Department of Licensing and Regulation, and the licence number starts with TECL. It is public and searchable on the TDLR site. Ask for it, then check it — it takes a minute and it is the cleanest filter in any trade on this directory.

A master electrician holds the licence; journeymen and apprentices work under it. That is normal and fine. What you want to know is whose licence the job is running under.

Permits are not optional, and they protect you

Panel replacements, service upgrades and most new circuits require a permit and an inspection in the City of Houston and in most surrounding jurisdictions. An electrician who offers to skip the permit to save you money is offering to leave unverified work in your walls — which becomes your problem at resale, and can become your insurer's argument after a fire.

Ask directly: who pulls the permit, and is it in the quote?

What Houston asks of a residential electrical system

Two jobs come up constantly here and both are worth understanding before you get quotes:

• Whole-home generator installs. After the 2021 freeze and several hurricane seasons, standby generators went from rare to common in this market. The install is an electrical job plus a gas job plus a permit, and the transfer switch is the part that matters. Ask whether the quote is for a whole-home or a managed-load switch — they are very different prices and very different outcomes when the power actually goes.
• Panel age. Certain older panel brands have known failure histories and some insurers now ask about them. If your panel is original to a house built before the early 1990s, having an electrician look at it is cheap.

On quotes

Get the scope in writing, including whether drywall repair is included. It usually is not, and on a rewire that gap can be a large fraction of the real cost.