Becoming Amateur Electrician

Wiring is a nice, logical process. You want to get power from point A to point B in the most efficient way possible. Running wire or “roping” a house is mostly a matter of drilling access holes through the house’s framing (the wall studs, plates, and floor joist) and pulling electrical cable through those holes. How you carry out this nice, logical process is another matter altogether.

Like just any task in life, you can do your own electrical work the hard way or the easy way. The hard way means tearing open more walls than necessary, undoing and then redoing part of the job due to poor planning, and trying to drill holes, cut wire, and strip insulation with cheap tools. The easy way calls for planning and economizing your moves and using good tools to give you a better job and to move you through it faster. You won’t be as fast as an experienced electrician, but you’ll have the satisfaction of doing your own work and doing it well. If you’re going to be your own electrician, you need to take your role as seriously as a professional would. This means presenting any required plans to your building department when you take out a permit, knowing the code issues, using the right tools, and finding suitable suppliers for your materials and fixtures. You don’t need to invest in the same level of equipment as an electrical contractor does. After all, you’re not going to be making your living at this. You can, however, become a talented amateur whose work can be respected, even by a professional!