Expert Electrician Services in Des Moines, Iowa

Central Iowa ice storms coat overhead lines until the weight snaps them. The service drop to your house and the metal mast on your roof take the worst of it, bending, pulling loose, or tearing the meter base off the wall. We replace damaged masts and drops, re-anchor the meter, and check the panel for arcing from the fault. Where the old mast was undersized, we install a heavier one built for the next storm.

Much of the east side still runs on Edison-base fuse boxes from the early 1900s. Fuses blow, homeowners oversize the replacement, and the old wire overheats behind the walls. We swap the fuse box for a modern breaker panel, inspect the branch wiring, and add grounding where it is missing. Your century-old wiring finally meets today's safety standards. Insurance renewals increasingly flag these panels, which pushes many owners toward replacement.

Homes built before the 1940s in Sherman Hill, Drake, and Highland Park often hide knob-and-tube wiring in walls and attics. It was never meant to carry modern loads, and buried splices or insulation packed around it create real fire risk. We rewire room by room or floor by floor, so you can spread the work over time. Every new circuit is grounded, permitted, and inspected.

A 1960s split-level in Urbandale or Clive was wired before home offices, hot tubs, and EV chargers existed. The panel fills up, tandem breakers get stacked, and the whole thing runs hot. We upgrade to 200 amps, reorganize the circuits, and leave room for what is next. One upgrade gives you decades of headroom. We also separate overloaded shared circuits, so one tripping breaker no longer kills half the house.

Wind and lightning leave behind damage you cannot always see. A storm passes, then a week later half the garage outlets die or a breaker trips for no reason. We trace the fault with thermal imaging and circuit testing, replace what the surge cooked, and add protection on sensitive equipment. Catching it early keeps a small repair from becoming a full rewire.

Most garages were wired with a single 15-amp circuit for a door opener and a work light. That is nowhere near enough for an EV. We run a dedicated 240-volt line from the panel, install the charger, and verify your service can handle the added load. From Ankeny to Waukee, commuters wake up fully charged. We also set up load management when the panel is close to capacity, so charging pauses while the dryer runs.

The August 2020 derecho tore across Iowa with hurricane-force winds, and Des Moines learned what that does to electrical services. Masts bent, weatherheads shattered, and drops ripped free of houses. Repairs since then have to meet current code, which often means a full service rebuild, not a patch. We rebuild storm-damaged services to survive the next one: heavier masts, proper flashing, and secure attachment. When the next big wind comes, your service stays put.

Acreage properties around Des Moines run machine sheds, barns, and detached garages that need real power. Welders, compressors, and heaters demand subpanels fed by properly sized underground runs. We trench the feeder, set the subpanel with its own grounding, and balance the loads. The house panel gets a single clean breaker instead of a tangle of extension cords. Outbuildings become workshops, not fire hazards.