Electrical repairs are a part of life. Unless you are a proud member of the Amish community (in which you likely wouldn’t be reading this engaging piece of literature on the World Wide Web that is powered by electricity), your way of life heavily relies on electricity. And when you use electricity every day, all day, everywhere you go, it’s a big ol’ deal when electrical repairs are necessary.


Now, when electrical repairs arise, the DIYer might think it’s a good idea to tackle them themselves. You can save a lot of time and money, as well as increasing your pride in home ownership by DIYing many of your home updates. Electrical repairs is not one of those things. You should always entrust your electrical problems in the hands of a qualified electrician. If you’re shaking your head and rolling your eyes and thinking, “What a noob.” check out our list of reasons to use a professional electrician instead of attempting electrical wiring repairs yourself:

1. For your own safety.
   There’s a reason that the outlets are the first thing that parents cover when they baby-proof their home. The electricity that flows through a home is deadly. If you opt to do your own electrical repairs and don’t know what you’re doing, at any point in time you could come in contact with the electrical flow in the walls, and that could be deadly.
   
   
   In fact, even professional electricians can be injured on the job if unexpected circumstances arise; that is with the professional knowledge to take every safety precaution. How much more dangerous is it for someone who hasn’t spent five or more years being trained on how to work around electricity? For your own safety, always call a professional electrician for your electrical repairs.




2. For the safety of your home and family.
   
   Let’s say you take all the appropriate safety precautions and do your electrical project on your own without harming yourself in the process. Problem solved? No. After you plug your electrical work into the grid, huge amounts of powerful electricity runs through it, constantly. Unless you have a journeyman’s training, there is no way to know if you’ve done the work precisely so that it can run efficiently and safely. If you do it wrong, it might hold up for weeks, or maybe even years. But it’s a ticking time bomb that could result in burning your home down. Electrical issues is one of the most common reasons for houses catching on fire.
   
   
   Obviously, nothing is more important than your family’s safety, and for that reason alone it’s not worth saving a few bucks to do your own electrical work instead of entrusting it in the hands of a professional. However, we should also add that home insurance very rarely covers claims that were a result of you burning your home down because you did your own electrical work badly.




3. For the safety of anyone who ever does electrical work on your home in the future.
   
   This is one of the “unexpected issues” that we mentioned in the previous section. There is a certain amount of trust that an electrician takes when they open your electrical system up. Yes, a good electrician will take safety measures that significantly reduce the risk, such as turning off the power to the home. But standard safety protocol won’t completely protect them when the proper protocols weren’t followed to begin with.
4. For the safety of your bank account.
   We know, money is tight for all of us. It might be appealing to do less damage to your wallet by making the electrical repairs yourself instead of paying an electrician to do it. However, picture this scenario: you buy your own supplies at a big box store (paying more for them than a professional would). You do the repair poorly and have to pay the pro to come in and fix your mess. Now you aren’t just paying for the job you initially had. You have to pay that much more for the repairs, and then the whole cost of the project itself.

Electrical repairs are a part of life. We all have to deal with them from time to time. When they do, do yourself a favor and call in a pro.