You as a consumer have a right to know about the company and the people who are working on your project. The State of Washington provides resources giving you the ability to “look up” the contractor and the electrician providing the service. Here are links that provide you with our company’s and my personal qualifications. You need to be proactive and look these up. You can be sure there are companies who are not licensed and may not provide electricians who are properly licensed to work independently. You have the right to ask to see their license when they walk up to your door.

The following link takes you to a Washington State search page. First pick “Name” in their list. Then type “A Great Break Electric” in the Business or Individual Name. The business will be listed there. This is the corporation, I have a license there that shows expired but that is from the past when I was a sole proprietor.

Next type “Ridgway, Scott”. This will provide you with my qualifications which include my administration license and my journeyman electrical license. I will follow with a brief explanation how licensing works in Washington State:

https://secure.lni.wa.gov/verify/

Apprentice Electrician

This is an individual who is licensed by the state and must be accompanied by a journeyman electrician. On residential work a journeyman electrician can supervise two apprentices. On commercial work a journeyman electrician can supervise one apprentice. The journeyman must accompany apprentices seventy-five percent of the time.

Residential Journeyman Electrician (02)

This is an individual who has accumulated 4000 hours of experience documented by the state and has passed the state examine. He or she can supervise up to two apprentices working on residential classified project. A residential journeyman cannot work on a commercial job as a journeyman. They are still considered an apprentice until their hours are documented and the state board test passed.

Commercial Journeyman Electrician (01)

This is an individual who has accumulated 8000 hours of experience documented by the state and has passed the state examine. He or she can supervise up to two apprentices on a residential project or one apprentice on a commercial or industrial project. Many commercial journeyman have no experience on residential projects, and even more so, despise the idea of working on a house.

General Administrator

This is an individual who has the proper experience and has passed the state examine. This allows the operator to license an electrical contracting business and operate it in the day to day activities. He or she is responsible for the work performed in the field. They can only manage and assign their license to one electrical contracting business. This license does not give them the legal right to work in the field, the individual must also possess their journeymans license to perform work.