How to Choose an Electrician in Middleburg, FL

By Matt Oxenrider, owner of Rider Electric in Middleburg

I got into this trade at 18, straight out of high school, working for a small commercial and industrial contractor. Mall build-outs first, then five years building substations, then more than a decade of high-voltage testing. Eventually I was working for a bigger contractor in town and saw how the sauce was made. They were eating steak and I was eating ramen, so in 2023 I started Rider Electric out of Middleburg.

There are three of us now. When you call, you get me. I say that first because it's the first thing I'd check if I were hiring an electrician, and it's the first thing on the list below.

Most people are scared of electrical, and that fear makes it hard to judge who's any good. So here's what I'd look for, from the guy who opens the panel.

Sometimes the right answer is "you don't need us"

In May 2025 a homeowner in St. Augustine called because her insurance inspection said the circuits in her panel were cloth wiring. That usually reads like a rewire. Eric and Dylan from my crew opened the panel and found every wire was thermoplastic. The one that worried the inspector was thermoplastic with a cloth jacket on the outside, and that jacket is acceptable. There was nothing to replace.

She got an explanation of her own electrical system and a straight answer to take back to her insurance company. Her home inspector had recommended us, which is how a lot of our work shows up.

"Eric and Dylan were thorough and took time to answer all our questions and explain things about our electrical system."

Nona Asconi, 5-star Google review, St. Augustine

What to check before you hire an electrician

• Who answers the phone. If a scheduler picks up and reads from a script, nobody on that call knows your house. When you call Rider, I pick up and start asking questions.
• Whether they ask questions before they show up. How old is the house? What happened right before it quit? Did anybody swap a fixture yesterday? I run a quick game of 20 questions on every call so we walk in with a working guess, and about 90% of the time we have it fixed inside the first hour. Everybody's a master electrician until they touch the wire, so tell your electrician what you tried. It saves you money.
• A license that covers where you live. Ask for the license and look it up. I'm county licensed through Duval County, and that license reciprocates with Clay, St. Johns, and the surrounding counties. I also keep up continuing education through the Electrical Council of Florida.
• A quote they can explain. I once quoted a job about 30% over the lowest bid. The customer's son asked why. I told him I didn't know what materials the other guy was using, what his work looked like, or whether he offered the same warranty, and I left it there. Two weeks later he called back and said, "Yep, let's do it."
• What goes in your wall. Ask what brand they use and why. For panel changes we use ABB because the parts are easy to get, so nobody waits on a breaker the supply house is out of. Some panels are wider than a stud bay, which means cutting your wall. Cheap parts are how you end up calling someone again in three to six months.
• Whether they'll tell you to call someone else first. When the power is acting up, I tell people to hang up with me and call their utility. Their smart meters can check the service without a truck. Three or four customers have called me back to say it was on the utility's side, which saved them a couple hundred bucks.
• A warranty you can name. Ours is one year on labor. Whoever you hire, ask what's covered and for how long before they start.
• Whether they'll admit what they don't know. If you ask me something and I'm not sure, I'll say, "That's a great question. I don't have an exact answer. Let me look into it." Anyone who claims to know everything about this trade is bluffing.

What a service call costs at Rider Electric

Troubleshooting and repair calls are billed by time. The first hour covers the trip and the troubleshooting. Here's what labor looks like depending on how long we're there.

Parts are extra. Weekend calls carry an added emergency charge. Bigger projects like panel changes are quoted as a job.

What drives the price on an electrical job

• Time on site. A clear description on the phone keeps the clock short. We've spent two hours opening things up before a homeowner remembered changing a light the day before.
• Parts. Better breakers, fixtures, and devices cost more up front and don't come back on you later.
• The house itself. No two houses are wired the same, and what the last person did behind the wall matters.
• Code. In Clay County, a panel change comes with smoke detectors in every room, because the county requires it.
• Timing. A weekend call costs more than the same call on a Monday.
• "While you're here." Adding small jobs is fine and often smart. Just know the hourly clock keeps running.

What a good first visit should look like

1. On the phone, your electrician asks about the house, what happened, and anything you already tried.
2. Whoever shows up already knows the short version, so nobody stands in your kitchen on the clock guessing.
3. They troubleshoot until they find the actual cause, whether that's a loose wire or a bad breaker.
4. They explain what they found in plain words, including when the answer is to leave it alone.
5. They fix it, or they give you a quote for the bigger work.
6. Before they leave, they tighten connections, check voltage, and make sure it works. On my jobs the cover screws all line up the same direction. If I come back and they don't, I know someone else has been in there.

Recent work around Middleburg

Questions homeowners ask about hiring an electrician