Electricians in Karen
Post the job to Karen and it reaches providers close enough to get to you. Posting is free, and the price is agreed before anyone starts.
Electrical in Karen
What is particular about Karen
Karen's plots are large, and electrical work there often means distance: power run out to a gate, a staff house, a borehole pump or garden lighting tens of metres from the main board. A run that long needs cable sized for the length and laid in conduit at a proper depth, and a lot of Karen faults turn out to be buried cable that was laid too shallow and has since met a jembe or a tree root.
Most Karen compounds also have an electric fence and a gate motor, both outdoors in the weather and both first in line when a storm sends a surge down the supply. When a fence energiser or a gate controller dies after a storm, ask the electrician to check the earthing and surge protection on that circuit as well as replacing the part, or the new one will go the same way.
The wider picture, including what affects electrical across the whole city, is on the electrical in Nairobi page.
Writing the request
What to include so the offers come back usable
- What exactly stops working, and what else is on at the time
- Whether the main breaker trips or only one circuit
- A photo of the consumer unit with the cover on — the layout tells an electrician a lot before they arrive
- The age of the building, if you know it, and whether it has been rewired
- Whether you rent, and whether the landlord needs to approve the work
What moves the price
Why two quotes for the same job differ
- Whether it is a fault to be traced or a fitting to be replaced — tracing is the part that takes time
- How much of the work involves chasing walls and making good afterwards
- The number of points, circuits or fittings involved
- Whether cable, conduit and fittings are on your account or theirs
- Whether the work needs to happen with the power off to the whole building
Help24 does not publish price ranges for electrical. Quotes come from the electricians themselves, and the number you agree is the number the payment is held against.
Before work starts
What to check with an electrician
- For a rewire, a consumer unit, or anything on the supply side, ask whether they hold an EPRA electrical worker licence and which class
- For a contractor doing a whole building, EPRA licensing and NCA registration are both relevant
- Ask whether the quote includes making good the plaster and paint after chasing
- Never let anybody work on a live consumer unit because it is quicker
- A NITA trade test certificate (Grade III is the artisan entry level, Grade I the highest) is the standard Kenyan proof of a trade. Plenty of excellent fundis work without one, so treat it as a bonus rather than a bar.
Post an electrical job in Karen
Free to post. You see the offers, you agree the price, and the payment is held until the work is done.