— Electrical · Lighting
Light fitting and switch work
Swapping fixtures, adding switches, and fixing the wiring quirks older houses tend to hide.
— The problem
What usually brings this call in
A light fixture swap sounds like a five-minute job until the box behind it turns out to be undersized, ungrounded, or fed by wiring that has been spliced more than once by whoever was there before. That is usually where a simple fixture change turns into an afternoon.
At a glance
- Trade
- Electrical
- Job type
- Lighting
- Usual timeframe
- Usually a single visit; half a day for a full room's worth of fixtures.
A representative electrical job of this kind — the sort of call that comes in — not a specific customer’s home or address. The photograph is trade stock imagery.
— How a job like this gets fixed
Step by step
- 01
Kill power at the breaker and confirm it is dead at the fixture, not just at the switch.
- 02
Check the electrical box is properly sized and rated for the new fixture's weight — swap it if not.
- 03
Confirm grounding is present and correctly connected, which older houses do not always have as standard.
- 04
Wire in the new fixture or switch, including any dimmer or smart-switch compatibility requirements.
- 05
Test under load, not just for a spark, before closing anything up.
— The outcome
Where it ends up
A fixture or switch that is properly supported and safely wired — not just connected, but actually up to what the box and circuit can carry.
Why it books as one visit
A job of this kind rarely stays inside one trade once it is open. The same crew carries the plumbing, electrical and carpentry, so what turns up behind the wall is dealt with on the same appointment rather than becoming a second call-out on a later date.
— More electrical
Related jobs
— Next step
Have a electrical job like this one?
Describe it on the phone or in the form. Free written estimate, and most jobs are priced without a survey visit first.
Electrical · Lighting