Chicago electrician. Day, night, 3 a.m.
A 24 hour emergency electrician in Chicago, plus the plumbing that goes wrong in the same old buildings. Dead circuits, a burning smell at the panel, a tripped main, a pipe that split overnight. You call, a person answers, and someone is on the way.
Sims & Sons is a family firm working out of Lakeview. We fix and upgrade the wiring in two-flats, greystones and frame cottages across the city, and we do it in metal conduit because Chicago code says so. Price basis on an emergency call: call-out charge plus time and materials, told to you on arrival before anybody touches a breaker.
01Overview
The electrician near me in Chicago who picks up at night.
Most people searching "electrician near me Chicago" at midnight want two things answered. Will somebody come, and what will it cost before they start. Here are both.
Call 312-282-1170. Someone picks up. Not a call center reading from a script, not a form that promises a callback in one business day. The person on the other end asks what you can see and smell, tells you whether to kill the main, and gives you a time.
The shop is at 1338 W Eddy St, in Lakeview on the North Side. That is where the van is loaded and where the conduit, breakers and copper fittings live. From there we cover Chicago, and the old housing stock is the work we know best: two-flats with a 60 amp fuse box in the basement, greystones with cloth-insulated cable fished through plaster, courtyard buildings where one unit's panel feeds the hallway lights for four.
A 60 amp fuse box cannot carry a modern kitchen and a window unit at the same time. That is not an opinion. That is arithmetic. A microwave pulls around 12 amps, a toaster oven another 12, a window AC 10 to 15. Put them on two old circuits and the fuse goes, or worse, somebody puts a 30 amp fuse where a 15 belongs and the wire gets hot instead.
Chicago wires in conduit. Most of the country does not.
The city's electrical code calls for wiring in metal conduit in most residential work. Elsewhere an electrician staples plastic-sheathed Romex to a joist and moves on. Here every run is EMT tube, bent and strapped, with wire pulled through it. It takes longer and it costs more in material. It is also the reason a Chicago installation survives a nail through the drywall. We do not run Romex where code calls for conduit, and a quote that is suspiciously cheap often is cheap for exactly that reason.
We pull the permit. You do not have to call the city.
Trade one · most of the work
Electrical
Emergency electrical repair, service and panel upgrades from 60 or 100 amp to 200 amp, knob-and-tube rewiring and dedicated circuits for EV chargers.
- Breakers, panels, meter sockets
- EMT conduit runs to Chicago code
- 240V circuits sized to the load
Trade two · same buildings
Plumbing
Emergency plumber calls in Chicago winters: burst and frozen supply lines, plus water heater replacement in 40 and 50 gallon sizes, gas or electric.
- Copper or PEX repair, pressure tested
- Venting and expansion tank checked
—Who we are not for
What we turn down, and why
- A panel upgrade price over the phone.We need to see the meter, the service drop and the existing panel. A number given blind is a number that changes once the cover comes off.
- Romex where Chicago code calls for conduit.If you want the cheapest wire in the wall regardless of code, someone will do it. Not us, and the inspector will not sign it either.
- Leaving a burst-pipe call with the water still on.If the repair needs a part we do not have on the van, the line gets capped and the water stays off on that branch until we are back.
02What we do
Electrical repair in Chicago, then the pipes. Six jobs, six price bases.
No price list pretending to be a quote. Each job below says what it involves and exactly what the number depends on. Emergency work is billed one way, planned work another.
| Job | What it involves | Price basis |
|---|---|---|
| 24/7 emergency electrical repair Electrical |
Dead circuits, a burning smell, a tripped main that will not hold, storm damage to the service mast. Isolate, find the fault, make it safe, repair if parts allow. | Call-out charge plus time and materials, stated on arrival before any work starts. |
| Service and panel upgrade Electrical |
60 or 100 amp to 200 amp service. New meter socket coordinated with ComEd, new load center, conduit, permit pulled by us, inspection attended. | Fixed written quote after a site visit to the meter, service drop and existing panel. |
| Knob-and-tube and cloth wiring replacement Electrical |
New runs in EMT conduit to Chicago code, circuit by circuit, so the house keeps power at night while the work moves room to room. | Written per-circuit quote after inspection. Plaster patching itemized separately. |
| EV charger circuit and install Electrical |
Dedicated 240V circuit with a load check against the existing service before anything is ordered. Garage, alley or basement runs. | Fixed quote once the panel capacity and run length are seen. |
| Burst and frozen pipe repair Plumbing |
Water off first. Damaged section cut out, copper or PEX repair, then a pressure test before we leave. | Call-out charge plus time and materials, stated before work starts. |
| Water heater replacement Plumbing |
40 or 50 gallon tank, gas or electric. Venting and expansion tank checked on every install. Old tank hauled out. | Fixed written quote including removal and haul-away of the old tank. |
Rates for the call-out and the hourly labor are given on the phone when you call. Materials are billed at what was used, listed on the invoice.
Emergency or scheduled. Pick the right lane.
Call now if you have no power to part of the house and the breaker will not reset, if anything at the panel is warm to the touch or smells like hot plastic, if a storm pulled the service drop off the mast, or if water is running anywhere it should not. Those are emergency calls and the call-out rate applies, day or night.
Send a job for anything that can wait a few days: a panel that is full, a fuse box you want gone before you sell, an EV charger for a car arriving next month, flickering lights on one circuit. We come out, look, and send the scope and price in writing. Planned work is cheaper than emergency work for the obvious reason that nobody is getting out of bed for it.
Most burst pipes we see in January are on an outside wall behind a kitchen sink. If you have one of those, open the cabinet doors on the coldest nights. It costs nothing.
03Proof
Proof is the method, written down before the wall opens.
You can judge an electrician by what the quote says it includes. Here is the ledger for a typical 200 amp service upgrade, and the order a burst-pipe call runs in.
What the price covers: 200 amp service upgrade
- New 200 amp load centerIncluded
- Breakers for every existing circuitIncluded
- Meter socket, coordinated with ComEdIncluded
- EMT conduit and service conductorsIncluded
- Grounding and bonding to water serviceIncluded
- City permit, pulled by usIncluded
- Inspection visit, attendedIncluded
- Drywall or plaster patchingNot included
- Painting after patchingNot included
The price covers the panel, the breakers, the conduit, the permit and the inspection visit. It does not cover drywall patching, and we say so up front. If a branch circuit turns out to be cloth wire once the panel is open, that is quoted separately and you decide.
A burst-pipe call, phone to dry wall
You call 312-282-1170
We tell you where the main shut-off usually sits in your type of building. In most two-flats it is in the basement on the street side, just inside the foundation wall.
Minute 0
Water off, power checked
On arrival we confirm the supply is off and check whether water reached any outlets, fixtures or the panel. Electric and water in the same ceiling is the reason one firm doing both matters.
On arrival
Price basis stated
Call-out charge plus time and materials, said out loud before the cut is made.
Before work
Cut out and repair
The split section comes out with some margin either side. New copper sweated in, or PEX with crimp fittings where it suits the run.
Same visit
Pressure test
Water back on, joints watched under line pressure. Nobody leaves on a joint that weeps.
Before we leave
Dry-out advice
Where the wet ceiling or wall needs opening to dry, we say so. Patching that plaster is not our trade and we do not pretend it is.
Last thing
Service upgrade, in order
04Contact
Send a job to a Lakeview electrician.
For anything that can wait a day. If power or water is out right now, skip the form and call 312-282-1170.
Call 312-282-1170. Someone picks up.