Quick Summary
Big Easy Electricians carries out electrical safety inspections on homes and commercial property across New Orleans, Metairie, Kenner, Harahan, River Ridge, Gretna, Covington, Mandeville, Slidell, Hammond, and LaPlace. An inspection documents the condition of the service, the panel, the grounding and bonding, the branch wiring, and the device protection, and it identifies the two conditions that most often affect insurance on local property: active knob-and-tube circuits in pre-1950 housing stock and single-strand aluminum branch wiring in 1960s and 1970s construction. Findings are measured against the 2020 National Electrical Code, the edition Louisiana enforces. Call 504-226-7555 to arrange one.
Last Updated: August 2026
Big Easy Electricians inspects electrical systems throughout New Orleans and five Louisiana parishes, and the reason people ask for one is almost always specific: a purchase is pending, an insurer has raised a question, a home inspection flagged something the inspector could not fully assess, or a house has started behaving oddly. An electrical safety inspection answers what is actually installed and what condition it is in, which is a different exercise from a general home inspection and produces a different kind of document.
What an Electrical Inspection Covers
An electrical safety inspection examines the whole system rather than the symptom that prompted the call. The service and meter base, the panel and its overcurrent devices, grounding and bonding, branch circuit wiring types and condition, device protection, and the visible condition of terminations throughout the property.
The areas assessed on a typical residential inspection:
- Service capacity and condition of the service entrance conductors and meter base
- Panel make and model, including types with documented failure histories such as Federal Pacific Stab-Lok and Zinsco
- Breaker sizing against the conductors they protect, under Article 240
- Grounding electrode system and bonding, under Article 250
- Branch wiring types present, specifically knob-and-tube, single-strand aluminum, and ungrounded two-wire circuits
- Ground-fault protection at the locations Section 210.8 requires
- Arc-fault protection status in living areas under Section 210.12
- Receptacle condition, polarity, and grounding
- Evidence of overheating at terminations, in the panel and at devices
- Signs of previous unpermitted alteration, which is common and frequently the source of the original complaint
What separates a contractor inspection from a general home inspection is access and interpretation. A home inspector is limited in what may be opened and generally reports a condition as needing evaluation by an electrician. The electrician is the evaluation, and can say what a condition is, whether it is a defect or merely dated, and what correcting it actually involves.
The Reasons People Book One
People rarely book an electrical inspection out of curiosity. It is nearly always driven by a purchase, an insurer, a referral from a home inspection, a storm, or a house that has started behaving oddly. What the inspection has to establish differs in each case, which is why the reason matters.
| Trigger | What the inspection needs to establish |
|---|---|
| Buying a property | What is installed, what it will cost to bring current, and whether anything is unsafe now |
| Insurer request or renewal | Presence of knob-and-tube, aluminum branch wiring, or a flagged panel type, with documentation |