Silverback Electric

I hired Silverback for some rough wiring work as part of a kitchen renovation in July 2019. I think the owner is a qualified electrician, but I can't say the same about the 2 guys he sent to actually do the work. Here are some highlights of their work:

1. snapped PERMANENT chalk lines on a finished ceiling without asking permission (I was around in another part of the house). Just because it's a renovation, don't assume you can just trash someone's ceiling. I wasn't planning on repainting the ceiling, but had no choice after that.

2. cut drywall with a recipricating saw. What the hell? Look at the picture if you don't believe me!

3. convinced me that the wires from 2 adjacent underfloor heating mats couldn't be spliced together to be powered from a single wire (and single thermostat). I was skeptical and asked if he was absolutely sure, and he said yes. I was told later (too late) by a licensed electrician that he was absolutely wrong. I now have 2 thermostats in the same kitchen because of his ineptitude.

4. screwed retaining clips straight into drywall despite the fact all the studs were clearly marked in the whole garage. Those white spots on the unpainted walls are to cover drywall screws... which are screwed into the studs! Maybe your screws should also go into the studs?

5. had to borrow my ladder to get into the attic. what kind of electrician doesn't have a ladder?

6. I left other things out because this review is getting too long.

To Aaron's credit, he came and personally addressed the most glaring deficiencies with the work his guys did. So at least there's that. He seems qualified, but he's not the one actually doing the work.

I had originally planned for them to do finishing work after the renovation was further along, but after seeing the kind of work his guys did I didn't want them anywhere near my house. I hired another electrician to do the finishing work which was unfortunate because he had to finish a job he didn't start. He looked over the work the first guys did and couldn't believe the poor workmanship. He had to fix a few things before starting his own work, and as he was doing it he was explaining all the things the first guys did wrong. Some were minor, and some were blatant code violations.

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Dec 2020: I just noticed that the owner is trying to save face by accusing me of harassing his employees. That never happened - I was polite to him and his employees and I paid him in full. I didn't interact that much with his guys anyway (I spoke with Keith a few times on day 1, and I was not there at all on day 2. There was another guy onsite which I never spoke to). He didn't pull his employees out, in fact after the 2 days of rough-in work were done he expected me to call him back to do finishing work a few weeks later. It was solely my decision to not hire them back.