Panel Upgrade and Backyard Electrical Underway in Claremont

Here's what we were working with on this Claremont home - an older meter enclosure showing its age, a heavily corroded panel interior, and a brand new backyard structure that needed power run to it. The existing setup just wasn't built to handle the load demands of a modern household, let alone a new outbuilding in the back.

That old panel tells the whole story. The breakers are heavily oxidized, the labeling is a mix of handwritten notes and blue tape, and the service disconnect is rated at 100 amps - which sounds fine until you start adding up everything a home runs today. EV chargers, mini splits, home offices, outdoor lighting. It adds up fast, and an undersized or degraded panel becomes a real liability.

The backyard structure is already up and ready - framed out, insulated with LP TechShield radiant barrier sheathing on the ceiling, and sitting on a solid plywood floor. It's a clean, usable space. But without power, it's limited. That's where we come in. Getting electricity out to a new structure like this is exactly the kind of new construction wiring work we do alongside a panel upgrade.

When you're upgrading a panel and adding circuits at the same time, it makes sense to do it all as one job. You get a fresh, properly rated main panel, the new circuits are pulled correctly from the start, and everything is permitted and inspected. No patchwork. No cutting corners to save a few bucks that ends up costing more later.

If your home has an older panel - especially one showing corrosion or breakers that trip without a clear reason - that's worth paying attention to. Same goes for any outdoor structure you're hoping to get power out to. These are exactly the kinds of projects we handle every day.