To find the electricians on this list, we talked to more than a dozen savvy New Yorkers, including home renovators and lighting specialists. These electricians can handle complicated chandelier installations and late-night electrical glitches quickly, efficiently, and thoroughly.
For Big Jobs in a Jiffy
Balance Electric Contracting, 718-752-0262
Film Forum screenings run until late at night, so if any electrical hitches arise — which they do, with four screens running — they need to be resolved during a short window in the morning. For this, the theater’s operations manager, Steve Knudsen, calls Balance Electric Contracting. The Long Island City–based team of three electricians, Knudsen says, consistently shows up right away and is “extra careful around our equipment, like the digital projectors, which have so many connectors you can’t even lightly bump them.” Film Forum has relied on Balance for a decade for these urgent fixes — like on the morning when staff arrived to a burning smell coming from the projectionist’s booth. Balance came and fixed the faulty breaker within an hour. Kevin Maloney, owner of HVAC installation group All Systems Mechanical, has worked exclusively with Balance since the 1990s and echoes Knudsen: “They’re speedy,” Maloney says, “and their knowledge of control wiring and mechanical systems for boilers is also not typical of the average electrician. Usually we have to explain how to do it ourselves.”
For Quick Jobs Around the House
Handyma’am, handymaam.nyc
When Eric Munson, who works in state-government operations, first moved into Park Slope last year, he struggled to find a responsive contractor to take on his random smattering of repairs, including some basic electrical installations. One of Munson’s new neighbors suggested Katie Whitaker, a trained carpenter who since 2019 has done business as Handyma’am, offering electrical services, home repairs, and interior house painting in parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Because of Handy ma’am’s generalist approach to getting stuff done around the house, Munson says it was much easier to book Whitaker and their team for a handful of small projects, including ones that many electricians view as too small (and therefore non-remunerative) to be worth their time. In addition to needing some leaky faucets fixed, Munson wanted dimmers for three-way light switches and a TV installation. For each issue, he says, Whitaker was clear about price and what to do. “Katie’s approach,” Munson says, “is to propose doing something simply, see if it works, and then escalate, rather than selling some big expensive project up front.”
For Newfangled Projects
Apollo Electric, 212-643-8541; apollonyc.com
“Most of what I build is in some sense a prototype,” says Adam Marelli, who takes on complicated, high-end renovation projects — like the current conversion of two side-by-side, landmarked 1840s-era Clinton Hill townhouses into passive homes that will run on electricity instead of gas. When his usual electrician wasn’t available, carpenter Mark Ellison (a frequent collaborator of Marelli’s) recommended Apollo Electric, whose contractors are known for staying up to date on the latest wiring-system technology. “Everything we’re doing here is very new and requires critical thinking,” Marelli says. “Apollo didn’t come in with a predetermined method of doing things.” Passive homes rely on two different types of insulation that keeps heating and cooling from fluctuating and a wiring system for devices that measure temperature and humidity. “I call them archivists,” Marelli says of Apollo, “because they keep track of original drawings for lights and switches, but they’re also trained in sensors, motion detectors, Nests, even baby cameras. They’re completely aware of construction considerations and how everything operates together.”
For Rentals
Duncan Odell of Brooklyn Builders Collective, 802-881-3824; brooklynbuilderscollective@gmail.com
Jordan Slocum and Barry Bordelon, known as designer-renovator duo the Brownstone Boys, mostly work on residential projects with clients who own. So two years ago, when they started on Hibiscus Brew, a Prospect–Lefferts Gardens juice bar setting up in a rented storefront, they faced a challenge: They wanted to install a bright banquet area and spotlights for art but wouldn’t be able to open the walls to run new electrical wiring. The contractor working on the building’s façade recommended Duncan Odell of Brooklyn Builders Collective, with whom he’d worked in the past. “He showed up to our initial meeting brimming with solutions,” Slocum says. One idea was to run new wiring from the existing system and hide the conduit inside the bar where patrons plug in laptops; another option was to design an external conduit that could be painted to match the walls when the original plan for built-in lighting became too expensive. “When we needed new lighting above the gallery wall,” Slocum says, “he drew us an image of what the conduit would look like exposed and then three alternatives if we didn’t like it.”
For Chandeliers
Expert Lighting, 646-205-0007; info@expertlightinginc.com
“Everything we make is effectively an art object that also happens to light up,” says Evan Giller, a production manager at lighting-design company Roll & Hill. “That can look pretty daunting to an electrician who’s used to running wire inside walls and focused on avoiding liabilities.” In 2017, during production on a particularly complicated Lindsey Adelman piece, someone at Adelman’s studio remembered a recommendation from another client and suggested they try Expert Lighting, which handles high-end chandelier installation and restoration. The intricate pendant in question — made with handblown glass and rope — would predictably be “out of scope for another electrician,” Giller says. But when he got on the phone to explain the lamp to Expert co-owner Renee Paskal, who has a background in jewelry design, it turned out her team had already finished installing the unorthodox piece in a client’s Jersey-shore home and was ready to send over photos. Roll & Hill has worked with Expert since then on everything from installation for its Agnes and Rudi pendants to a custom globe chandelier in the lobby of a law firm across the street from the White House.
