Electrician in East Los Angeles

What we do in East Los Angeles

Everything we do in East Los Angeles, with what each job usually involves here. The photos are from our own jobs.

Panel upgrades in East Los Angeles

Panel and service upgrades for older East LA houses and duplexes, with the county's Electrical (Simple) permit, SCE's portal request, inspection and meter set coordinated in order.

More on panel upgradesCall (844) 430-7681

EV charger installation in East Los Angeles

Chargers for driveways, garages and small apartment lots, using the county's Article 85 expedited path when the installation qualifies.

More on EV charger installationCall (844) 430-7681

Electrical repair & troubleshooting in East Los Angeles

Tripping breakers, warm outlets and dead circuits in pre-war houses and busy multi-family homes where loads have outgrown the original wiring.

More on electrical repair & troubleshootingCall (844) 430-7681

Rewiring in East Los Angeles

Replacing original wiring in 1910s to 1950s houses, room by room where the family stays in the home during the work.

More on rewiringCall (844) 430-7681

Lighting & ceiling fans in East Los Angeles

Interior and exterior lighting for homes, and storefront and sign lighting for shops on Whittier Boulevard, 1st Street and Cesar Chavez Avenue.

More on lighting & ceiling fansCall (844) 430-7681

Outlets, GFCI & new circuits in East Los Angeles

Grounded and GFCI-protected outlets in place of two-prong originals, plus the AFCI, GFCI and alarm circuits a garage-to-ADU conversion calls for.

More on outlets, GFCI & new circuitsCall (844) 430-7681

Commercial electrical in East Los Angeles

Tenant improvements, new circuits and lighting for storefronts, restaurants and offices along East LA's commercial corridors, with the county permit coordinated.

More on commercial electricalCall (844) 430-7681

Also: subpanels, dedicated circuits, 240-volt outlets for dryers and ranges, exterior and security lighting, hard-wired smoke alarms, and small repairs of every kind.

Working in East Los Angeles

East Los Angeles is not part of the City of Los Angeles. It is an unincorporated community with no city government of its own, so Los Angeles County provides local services, and that includes the building permit for electrical work. Mail still goes to "Los Angeles, CA 90022" or 90063, which is why people are often surprised to learn that the City's building department and the City's power company have nothing to do with their house. The ZIP code alone doesn't settle it, though: part of 90063 lies in Boyle Heights, inside the City of Los Angeles, and part of 90022 lies in the City of Commerce, so we check the parcel.

The area grew up along early streetcar lines as tracts such as Belvedere Heights and Belvedere Gardens, and in 1932 local business leaders gave the name East Los Angeles to Belvedere and the areas around it. County planners describe the residential core along the 3rd Street corridor as mostly one- and two-story single-family and two-family homes built from the 1910s to the 1950s. Census figures show about a third of occupied homes are owner-occupied (33.5%), households average 3.66 people, and 82.5% of residents age 5 and over speak a language other than English at home. Infinity Electrical Inc. (CSLB #1100231) offers customer assistance in English and Spanish, and we look at the job before putting a price in writing.

What's common in East Los Angeles homes

Century-old cottages, duplexes on shared lots, hillside houses in City Terrace and busy commercial strips each bring their own electrical needs in East LA.

• Pre-war houses in the core. County planners date most of the 3rd Street area's homes to the 1910s through the 1950s and note that many have since been re-sided or had windows replaced. Wiring from those decades was sized for lights and a radio, so original panels, ungrounded outlets and add-on circuits are common findings.
• Duplexes and rentals. With roughly two in three households renting and an average of 3.66 people per household, owners and managers often need help with meter banks, crowded panels and circuits that trip under today's loads.
• Garage conversions and ADUs. County Building and Safety runs a garage-to-ADU program with standard notes for single-story conversions. Those notes call for hard-wired, interconnected smoke and carbon monoxide alarms with battery backup, AFCI protection on new 120-volt, 15- and 20-amp branch circuits, GFCI protection on new receptacles in locations such as bathrooms, and a 100-amp minimum main breaker for the house and for a detached ADU; a separate meter is not required for a JADU. That makes the house panel the first thing to check.
• City Terrace. The hillside part of East LA, on the edge of the Repetto Hills, has steep, winding streets and many Spanish Colonial Revival houses. Service and panel locations on sloped lots take some planning.
• Commercial corridors. Whittier Boulevard is East LA's main thoroughfare, and the county's 3rd Street plan calls for 1st Street to be a “Main Street” of shops and restaurants, with mixed-use buildings along Cesar Chavez Avenue, Atlantic and Beverly. Storefront tenant changes typically mean new circuits, lighting and signage power.

Permits and power in East Los Angeles

East Los Angeles (mostly ZIP codes 90022 and 90063, which also reach into neighbouring cities) sits between two very different rule books. Boyle Heights to the west and El Sereno to the north are neighborhoods of the City of Los Angeles, where LADBS issues permits and LADWP supplies power. Cross into East LA and both change: permits come from LA County Public Works Building and Safety, and the meter belongs to Southern California Edison. Because the mailing address reads Los Angeles either way, we check the parcel before the estimate.

Permits are issued by County Building and Safety, which runs district offices for unincorporated communities. The local one is the East Los Angeles Building and Safety Office at 4801 E. 3rd St., in the county hall near the Civic Center. Applications, plan uploads, fees and inspection requests go through the county's EPIC-LA system. One recent change matters for small jobs: the county's guide says the Express Electrical Permit stopped being offered on EPIC-LA as of August 26, 2026, and applicants now use the Electrical (Simple) permit, which is also the permit the guide points to for a main service panel upgrade.

EV chargers need a county permit, and the county has an expedited path for them. Article 85 of the County Electrical Code sets up an expedited permitting and inspection process for charging stations that meet its checklist, accepts applications electronically, and says charging equipment rated under 400 amps does not need an electrical plan check and may be permitted over the counter at a district office. A county EV webinar describes this as part of the streamlining that AB 1236 required of every California jurisdiction.

Power is SCE's. A panel upgrade or meter spot for an existing service is requested through SCE's Building, Renovation and Project Planning Portal, and SCE takes requests to remove or relocate its equipment by phone. Repairs, lighting and a charger that fits on the existing panel usually don't involve SCE at all.

Zoning overlays. East LA has its own Community Standards District, adopted by the Board of Supervisors in 1988, with later amendments that include Whittier Boulevard and a Union Pacific subarea, and the East L.A. 3rd Street Specific Plan, adopted in 2014, sets standards around the Gold Line (now E Line) stations. Most electrical work is unaffected, but on a storefront or a new mixed-use building we check which standards apply before placing exterior equipment or signs.

The permits and utilities guide explains the whole picture for the three counties we serve.

Around East Los Angeles

East LA's neighbours look alike on a map but follow different rules. Boyle Heights and El Sereno are inside the City of Los Angeles, so LADBS issues permits and LADWP supplies power. Monterey Park and Montebello are separate cities with their own building departments that issue electrical permits, and both are in SCE territory. The City of Commerce, to the south, lists Southern California Edison as its electricity provider; we confirm its permit office for each address.

• Boyle Heights
• El Sereno
• Monterey Park
• Montebello
• Commerce

See the full list of areas we cover across Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties.