Frontline Electrical Services provides a variety of electrical repair and installation services for residential and commercial clients in Contra Costa, Solano, and Napa Counties. The company has the training and equipment to take on projects of every size, from basic electrical panel upgrades to complete home rewires, and it’s a Tesla Partner® for EV charging stations, Tesla Solar, and Tesla Powerwall.
President Lee Sherwood says his engineering background gives Frontline Electrical Services a key competitive advantage. “Today’s homes are much more complex than they used to be, so the fact that we look at each job through the lens of an engineer is very beneficial to our clients. We’re able to design systems that meet their immediate needs while setting them up for the next phases. I call it ‘beginning with the end in mind,’ and it’s an important part of everything we do.”
Frontline Electrical Services prioritizes communication on each project, which Mr. Sherwood says is essential for ensuring positive results. “We ask a lot of questions so we can find out exactly what it’s going to take to solve our clients’ issues. Ultimately, we want them to be customers for life, so we focus on being truthful and respectful in every aspect of our work.”
“Our goal is to earn our clients’ trust so they call us back and recommend us to their friends and family, so we make sure our work is clean, competitively priced and completed to the highest standards of quality. We stand by our motto on every job: ‘Quality-driven professionals doing it right.’”
If you live in an older house, consider having its electrical system rewired to avoid serious problems.
A common problem that owners of older homes experience is circuit breakers that continually trip. The primary reason for this is simple: Older homes don’t have enough circuits. Newer homes typically have a separate circuit for every eight to 10 outlets, plus a dedicated circuit for outlets that power heavy appliances, but some older homes only have two circuits for the entire house. So, if all your lights are on at night and you turn on a small appliance like a blender, there’s a good chance the breaker will trip, which can be a pretty big inconvenience.
If you find yourself in this situation, you essentially have two options. The first is to have PG&E upgrade your service so more power is supplied to your house (this usually requires the installation of a new electrical panel). The second is to have an electrician rewire your entire house and add new circuits—an option that many electricians tend to skip. With a lot of older homes, the service has been upgraded and new panels have been installed to handle the increased load, but the house hasn’t been rewired. An expensive new panel won’t do any good if your home still has the same old circuits.
A good short-term solution is to be careful about what you plug into the same circuit. For example, don’t plug two heat-generating appliances (space heaters, irons, vacuum cleaners) into the same circuit, and be aware that older computers draw more power than newer ones. Remember, these tips are only stop-gap measures—it can be very dangerous to continually overload your home’s electrical capacity, and the only long-term solution is to upgrade your service and rewire the entire house.
Electrical contractors are always looking for ways to differentiate themselves from their competition, and those that have earned the prestigious Diamond Certified award are already several steps ahead. In addition to its Diamond Certified status, Frontline Electrical Services sets itself apart by combining its comprehensive electrical expertise with in-depth engineering knowledge—an approach that, according to President Lee Sherwood, leads to better results for clients. “I founded this business as an engineering firm that had an electrical division, and now that we’re an electrical company, that engineering expertise plays an important role in all the work that we do,” he says. “Whether our clients want outdoor lighting installed or their entire houses rewired, we’re able to look at the job through the lens of an engineer.”
Frontline Electrical Services has been providing electrical repair and installation services for residential and commercial clients in Contra Costa, Solano, and Napa Counties since 1993. The company has the in-house capabilities to take on everything from basic electrical panel upgrades to full-scale home rewires, and it’s also certified by industry leader Tesla to install electric vehicle charging stations.
Unlike less experienced electrical contractors that can handle installations and repairs but not deeper project evaluations, Frontline Electrical Services understands how to deal with the constant evolution of home systems. “If our clients are thinking about buying electric cars, installing solar panels or upgrading their HVAC systems, we can save them money by modifying their current jobs so they’re prepared for future upgrades,” explains Mr. Sherwood. “They really appreciate how we’re able to meet their immediate needs while getting them ready for the next steps."
Ultimately, Mr. Sherwood sees Frontline Electrical Services’ ability to combine forethought, quality work and competitive pricing as its most important attribute. “We give our clients the benefit of clear, upfront, detailed pricing so they know where every dollar is going,” he says. “We don’t just give a lump sum price—we provide line item prices for each part of the job and include a detailed narrative with assumptions and clarifications for everything we do. No one else in the industry does it that way.”
