Electrician in Pico Union, California

Pico Union is one of the densest neighborhoods in Los Angeles, full of older multi unit buildings. Meter stack replacement and in unit subpanels are the core of the work here.

Pico Union was built up from the 1880s through the 1910s as a middle class streetcar suburb, and blocks of Victorian, Queen Anne and Craftsman houses still stand near Alvarado Terrace and the South Bonnie Brae Tract. Over the decades most of the large houses were cut into multiple units, and the gaps filled with brick apartment buildings from the 1920s and stucco walk-ups from the 1950s and 1960s. Nine out of ten households rent, and units are often shared by large families.

Converted houses are where the strangest wiring turns up. One original service may feed four or five units through subpanels added without permits, with knob and tube still live in the upper floors. The postwar walk-ups bring their own problems, usually small unit panels and aging meter banks. Landlords call when tenants report outages or burning smells, when insurance or refinancing requires an inspection, and when a converted house needs its units metered separately to be legal.

What Pico Union properties usually need