White Lightning Electric — Local services in Portland

Update: If you own a home you care about aesthetically, you'll need to specifically request that Jaime NOT be assigned to the job. While Jaime does fine electrical wiring work, he does not communicate well, will favor speed over quality when it comes to carpentry/general contracting tasks, will not admit mistakes, and will leave the worksite without notice and without a thought to review his work with you. White Lightning leadership will always send a second team out to undo any damage Jamie causes or finish any outstanding tasks at no additional cost to you, but it does come at the expense of your patience and time out of the workday. We had one work assignment start September 17th and did not finish until March 4th because Jamie did slipshod work running a mast for a new circuit box: treating a reciprocating saw like an angle grinder to gouge out a hole in 90 year old roof eaves and layering in several square inches of roofing tar to say "I did my best". Several roofers we hired to review the work agreed the damage could have been avoided with different techniques available to an electrician. Why did it take just shy of 6 months to repair the damage caused by Jaime and finish the outstanding tasks? Inclement weather, numerous rescheduling requests by staff, sporadic communication from a manager that is no longer employed by White Lightning, and a lack of available staff qualified to properly repair the roof eaves. Jaime (or the team he manages) did not label the circuit breakers in the new breaker box accurately the first time around. Kevin had to swing by a week later and check/redo some of the work. On the upside, we continue to be happy with Kevin's quality of communication and attention to detail.

Original review: Kevin was professional and thorough. Really appreciate Kevin swinging by to upgrade our basement switches and diagnosing the cause of flickering house lights. He provided a tour of work when completed and suggested additional upgrades for the future, which we’ll...

We are remodeling our house and worked with many contractors over the last 7 months. White lightening was painful to work with. Before I explain this any further I would like to point out that the actual electricians doing the work are great and do a fantastic job. The reason I can only give one star and will never hire them again after this 20k project is due to poor management. We decided to go with them for this big project (upgrade electrical panel, install new outlets, can lights, ceiling fans, floor heat) because of mostly 5 star reviews, which is why I want to share our experience so you hopefully don't make the same mistake. Once your project starts you wont see electricians in your house every day until it's done. It's a random day here and there and sometimes nothing for over a week (really not fun with no electricity in the kitchen and open outlets with hot wires and small kids in the house). All of that without any kind of communication. We have texted, emailed and called every day twice or more just to find out about the schedule and did not get any response for days(!). This is not a one off, it has happened over and over in the 4 months that white lightening took to finish a job that they told us would take 2 weeks. We had to reschedule dry wallers and therefore flooring guys because of white lightnings inability to meet deadlines. I have yet to hear an apology for any of that. When it was time for the inspection, no one was there from white lightening and my husband had to walk the inspector through trying to answer questions the inspector would have about the electrical work. I can absolutely not recommend to hire them. The lack of communication, responsiveness and time management...

Technician Kevin, with White Lightning Electric, did a fantastic job dealing with a variety of issues in our home. We had lighting to install, outlets to fix, and a litany of weird (and dangerous) wiring choices made by whoever built this house. Kevin was professional and courteous throughout, while also doing a great job communicating with us about what he was finding and what needed to be done in order to fix it. While fixing other things, he ended up discovering a wiring mistake in our kitchen that could have led to possible melting wires and fire. Considering we run a business where we always have children around, we are incredibly grateful that he was so thorough and that this issue was caught, as we would have had no idea until it was too late. Our home created some particular challenges, and I really appreciated Kevin's ability to problem solve and figure out the best solutions. Quote and scheduling processes were clear and easy, prices were fair, and there was good communication throughout. Would absolutely recommend White Lightning to anyone dealing with electrical issues or looking to have some...