Neil Edwards
The manager of Capitol Electric, who started the company in 2012 and still splits his week between the office and job sites.
Neil Edwards runs Capitol Electric. He started the company in 2012 to do the work he knows best: tracing a fault back to its source, replacing worn wiring, and finishing each installation cleanly enough that the next electrician to open the panel can follow what was done.
His first day in the trade was spent pulling cable through an attic in a Sacramento summer, with a flashlight in his teeth and an electrician below him calling out how much slack he needed. By the end of that day he was hooked on the work.
A Week Split Between the Office and Job Sites
Neil’s week has a rhythm. Mondays go to scheduling and ordering materials, so the week’s jobs have their materials lined up. Midweek he’s usually on a panel upgrade or tracing a fault, the two kinds of work that ask the most patience: a panel swap has to be planned around a day without power, and a fault can hide anywhere along a circuit. Fridays are for estimates, looking at planned work such as new lighting, a charger or a rewire and working out what it involves.
How He Approaches the Work
The approach behind Capitol Electric is simple to say and slower to do. Find the actual cause before fixing anything. Replace wiring that has worn out instead of patching it again. Leave every box, splice and breaker in a state the next person can understand without guessing.
The clearest sign of that is the panel directory. Before Neil leaves any job, he checks that the directory is accurate, so every breaker is labeled in clear handwriting. A panel whose labels say “kitchen,” “bath GFCI” and “garage outlets” instead of “misc” is the difference between switching off the right circuit in ten seconds and flipping breakers in the dark.
What a First Conversation Covers
Whether it’s a repair or a planned job, the first conversation is mostly questions, because the answers narrow down where to look. For a problem, that’s what happened and when it started. For planned work, it’s what you want to add and how the house is wired today.
What Helps When You Call
- What is happening, and when it began
- Which rooms, outlets or lights are affected, and what was running when it started
- Whether a breaker tripped, and what its label says
- The age of the house or the panel, if you know it
- For planned work, photos of the panel and the spot where the work goes, sent by email
Talk Through a Job
Call, or schedule a visit and describe what you need; the more you can tell us, the better the first visit goes.