Brian M.
10/10/2014 12:00:00 SA
I didn't go looking for Jesse; he was recommended to me by the HVAC company that was putting in my new central air and heating. I needed to redo all the electrical in my house, since it had very old knob and tube wiring and I couldn't even put insulation in the attic on top of it. As it was, I had already picked out an electrician who I was going with, but the HVAC guys said such great things about Jesse that I had to meet with him. And I'm sure glad I did!
Jesse is a very straightforward guy. When you meet with him, he'll tell you all about himself, and his family, and his history, and how he became such an expert in the electrical field. At first you might thing TMI! But in the end, you realize that this is just Jesse trying to make you feel at ease with him, with no pressure to hire him, and he even makes it feel guilt-free if you decide to go with someone else.
The real irony here, though, is that Jesse turned out to be waaaay better than the HVAC company I hired. He was able to tell me ahead of time what they were doing wrong -- and how to fix it. In the end, they fixed every problem there was, and I appreciate that in a company, but it really helped to have Jesse there to give me a heads up.
Jesse worked on our attic during one of the really hot spells this summer. I dropped by the house during the high heat of the day, expecting the house to be empty because it was way to hot to work, but there was Jesse -- in the attic no less -- working and sweating his butt off. The HVAC guys, it should be noted, were no where to be seen! I didn't want to bother Jesse, so I left and returned around 8:00 p.m. that night to see how things had been progressing. Well slap my a** and call me Judy, but there was Jesse, still in the attic, still sweating, and still working his butt off! He really was/is the hardest working contractor I have ever seen (or likely will ever see!). I was truly impressed with his work ethic and sense of professionalism. But it doesn't stop there.
Jesse also has an encyclopedic knowledge of the electrical code, and can virtually quote chapter and verse of it. It was a joy to watch him yucking it up with the Code Inspector for the final inspection, and I could swear that he was finishing the inspector's sentences for him! There were some changes to the code that weren't supposed to go into effect until later in the summer, but the inspector wanted Jesse to implement them now. With no complaint, and with no extra charge, Jesse spent an entire additional day implementing the new code changes onto the work that he had already done. You do NOT get service like that these days, certainly not from a contractor!
Is Jesse infallible? Not really. He is human after all. He was not able to finish the job exactly on schedule, excluding the extra day for implementing the new code changes. But even this wasn't really his fault. The HVAC guys had hammered in some nails through three or four different lines in the attic (ugh!), and Jesse had to completely re-run those lines. He could have just spliced them at the cut, but he's way too professional for that. He never even complained about the HVAC guys doing that -- they told me about it (kudos to them for their honesty).
Jesse also did a great job of cleaning up after himself every day, which was really great. I did, at one point, blame him for the tremendous amount of drywall dust all over the floors, the walls, the furniture, etc. He explained that he cleaned up after himself every day, but all you had to do was look around at all the dust to wonder if he was crazy. Well, once again the HVAC guys confessed to making the mess. And they even offered to hire a professional cleaning crew to come in and clean it up (which we did!). Once I factored that into the equation, I realized that Jesse was in fact super clean in the limited amount of wall work that he did (i.e., he vacuumed up after every cut into the wall).
I try to write fair and balanced reviews to be helpful to people. I realize this review sounds like I'm trying to get a job for a close family member. But I'm not. Well, if I had to say there was a drawback to hiring Jesse, I guess it would be that he is a small company (just himself) and for larger jobs it will take a little longer. But his prices are definitely lower than the big companies, so it all washes out in the end. Oops. That turned into a plus. Well, all I can do is recommend that you meet Jesse, let him tell you his story and give you an estimate, and then you can make up your own mind about what I'm saying.
But I do highly recommend Jesse for any and all electrical work that you might have to do.