When You Need An Inspection
Licensed Inspections & Safety Checks
To schedule an inspection, call (732) 228-2243 or request a quote.
An electrical inspection is not a legal formality, it’s the one time a licensed electrician gets to look at every part of your home’s electrical system at once and give you an honest report on what’s safe, what’s failing, and what’s about to fail. CAM Electrical Services performs residential electrical inspections throughout Brick Township, Toms River, Point Pleasant, Lakewood, Jackson, and the rest of Ocean / Monmouth County. We inspect for homebuyers, homeowners, insurance requirements, renovations, and safety concerns, and we write a real report instead of a checklist with the word “pass” stamped on it. Owner Chris Mouritzen (NJ Electrical Contractor License #34EB01136500) personally performs and signs off on every inspection.
Not every house needs a formal electrical inspection every year, but some situations absolutely call for one.
Home inspectors are generalists. A good home inspection will surface obvious electrical red flags but it will not tell you whether the panel is a Federal Pacific Stab-Lok (a known fire hazard), whether the aluminum wiring in the walls has been properly remediated, or whether the service entrance cable is rated for the home's current load. A dedicated electrical inspection by a licensed electrician catches what a home inspector misses, and it's one of the highest-value diagnostic tools you can buy before closing on an older house.
Many insurance companies require an electrical inspection before binding coverage on older homes, homes with fuse boxes, homes with known hazardous panel brands, or homes that haven't been re-inspected in decades. Some will accept a general home inspection, others explicitly require a licensed electrician's report. We write reports in the format your insurance company wants
Post-closing inspections are one of the smartest first moves for a new homeowner in Ocean County and Monmouth County especially in 1960s-1980s housing where aluminum wiring, Federal Pacific panels, knob-and-tube remnants, and undersized panels are all common. Knowing what you have lets you plan upgrades before you have an actual problem.
Adding a second-floor bathroom, finishing a basement, building an addition, installing a new kitchen, adding central AC, or putting in an EV charger or hot tub all put new demands on your electrical system. A pre-renovation inspection tells you what the existing system can handle and where upgrades are needed before the drywall goes up.
Flickering lights across multiple circuits, breakers tripping on light loads, warm outlets, odd buzzing at the panel, or recent minor electrical fires in outlets or appliances all justify a full inspection. These are symptoms of real underlying problems and an inspection identifies the cause before it escalates.
We don’t hand you a yes/no sticker. You get a written report that includes:
Exec Summary
Goes over your overall system condition and urgent findings
Itemized Findings
Has categories (safety hazard, code violations, maintenance and upgrades.)
Photos
Notable findings (panels, wiring, damage and any hazards)
Recommended repairs and estimated costs for each.
Written License & Cert
Documentation for your records that we did your inspection.
What We Check For During Your Inspection
Our electrical inspections are methodical, room-by-room and made with a proven system to ensure safety. Our walkthroughs and inspection process often cover the following:
Size, age, and condition of the service drop, weatherhead, mast, meter socket, and service entrance cable. Whether the service is properly grounded and bonded.
Brand, model, age, amperage rating, and known hazard status. Federal Pacific Stab-Lok and Zinsco panels are flagged immediately. Bus bar condition, breaker condition, double-tapped breakers, proper torque on connections, arc-fault and ground-fault protection where required, and overall panel capacity versus actual load.
Main grounding electrode system, water pipe bonding, gas pipe bonding where applicable, ground rod condition, and continuity testing.
Visible wiring in the attic, basement, crawlspace, and accessible walls. We identify knob-and-tube, cloth-covered BX, aluminum branch wiring, modern NM-B, and any mix of these. We flag compromised insulation, damaged conductors, and improper splices.
Spot-check testing of outlets for proper polarity, ground, and functionality. GFI and AFCI protection verification in bathrooms, kitchens, garages, outdoor, and basement per current code. Damaged or out-of-date devices are noted.
Hardwired detector presence, interconnection status, and age (most detectors have a 10-year maximum life).
Visible wiring at fixtures, box ratings, overheating signs, and fixture condition.
Federal Pacific, Zinsco, and Other Known Bad Panels
What We May Find On Your Panel
A surprising number of Ocean County and Monmouth County homes still have Federal Pacific Stab-Lok or Zinsco panels that were installed in the 1960s-1980s and never replaced. If you have either of these, here’s the honest situation.
The breakers in these panels have a documented history of failing to trip during overloads. That means they're supposed to protect your home from fire but often don't. Multiple research studies and insurance industry reports have flagged these panels as a fire risk. Most insurance companies charge higher premiums or refuse to bind new policies on homes with them. The fix is a full panel replacement.
Similar story, different manufacturer. Zinsco panels are known for bus bars that corrode and breakers that fail to trip or weld themselves to the bus. Same recommendation, replacement is the only safe option.
Not "bad" panels per se but they've been out of production for decades. Replacement breakers are expensive, increasingly hard to source, and the panels themselves are at end of life in most homes where they still exist.
If we find any of these during an inspection, the report will be very clear about the risk and the recommended action. We don’t sugarcoat it. For replacement, see our electrical panel upgrade page
Questions?
What To Know About Your Electrical Inspection
Not every panel issue requires a full replacement. Sometimes a targeted repair is the right call.
No. A home inspection covers dozens of systems across the whole house, and the home inspector is not a licensed electrician. Home inspectors are great at spotting obvious red flags but they don't test grounds, open panels deeply, or evaluate code compliance in detail. An electrical inspection by a licensed electrician is a deeper, more specialized look at only the electrical system.
It's strongly recommended, especially for homes built before 1985 or homes with any visible signs of older wiring. The cost of an inspection is a fraction of the cost of finding out after closing that the panel, the wiring, or both need major work.
Yes. We explicitly check for and call out known hazardous panel brands including Federal Pacific Stab-Lok, Zinsco, Challenger, and end-of-life Pushmatic/Bulldog panels. These flags are the first thing in the report when they're present.
A standard single-family home inspection takes 1.5-3 hours depending on home size and access to attic, basement, and crawlspaces. Larger homes or homes with documentation needs can take longer.
Most non-urgent inspections can be scheduled within 3-7 days. Time-sensitive inspections for closings or insurance deadlines can often be done within 1-2 days. Call us as early as possible in the timeline so we can fit you in.
Our residential inspection process is what's described on this page. For commercial buildings, reach out directly and we'll scope it individually.
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Whether you’re buying, selling, renovating, or just want to know what you’re working with, a proper electrical inspection is the cheapest diagnostic tool in the whole home. Call (732) 228-2243 or request an inspection online
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Serving Brick Township & Ocean / Monmouth County
Electrical Inspections Throughout
We perform electrical inspections throughout:
– Brick Township including Herbertsville, Laurelton, Midstreams, and the barrier island sections
– Toms River, Silverton, Pleasant Plains, and Holiday City
– Wall Township
– Bay Head, Lavallette, Mantoloking, and Seaside
– Lakewood, Howell and Jackson Township
We know the Ocean County housing vintage intimately. Holiday City and Silver Ridge developments have specific panel and wiring patterns. The barrier island has Sandy-era rebuilds with mixed wiring ages. Brick Township has 1960s-80s tract homes with aluminum and original panels. Point Pleasant has older colonials with occasional knob-and-tube holdovers. Knowing what’s in the walls before we walk in makes our inspections faster and more accurate.