- 027 484 0801
- [email protected]
- Monday - Sunday 24 hours
Not every electrical job happens to break during business hours, and not everyone can take Tuesday morning off work either way. WeDo Electrical does genuine after-hours callouts across Christchurch and Canterbury — for real emergencies and for ordinary jobs that just need doing outside the 9-to-5.
Serving homes & businesses across Christchurch & Canterbury
Got a call about 8pm from a couple in Sydenham who'd just had a new dishwasher delivered and installed by the retailer, and the circuit it was plugged into kept tripping the moment the wash cycle started. Both of them work during the day and didn't want to wait til the weekend with a sink full of dishes. We got out there that evening, found the dishwasher was sharing an old circuit with half the kitchen that just couldn't handle the extra load, ran it a dedicated circuit from the switchboard, and they had a working dishwasher before we left. Nothing dramatic, just a job that needed doing after hours because that's when people are actually home.
People sometimes think "after hours electrician" only means sparks flying and someone panicking at 2am. Some of it is exactly that, and we cover it. But a big chunk of our after-hours work is just normal, non-urgent jobs that happen to suit an evening or weekend booking better than a weekday one.
Think about it from a homeowner's side. If you work Monday to Friday, 8 to 5, when are you actually free to let an electrician into your house? Evenings and weekends, same as everyone else. We'd rather work around your schedule than make you burn a day of annual leave for a job that takes ninety minutes.
Then there's the actual emergencies - power out, smoke, sparking, a shock off something that shouldn't be live. Those don't check what time it is before they happen, and they don't wait until Monday either. We treat those calls differently to a scheduled evening booking, but both fall under "after hours" and we do both.
Working parents are probly our biggest after-hours group. Cant exactly have a stranger in the house while the kids are being dropped at school and picked up, so evenings after dinner or Saturday mornings work way better. We've done everything from powerpoint upgrades to full switchboard jobs around a family's actual routine instead of ours.
Then theres landlords and property managers. A rental in Addington had a hot water cylinder element fail on a Friday afternoon - tenant wasnt going without hot water all weekend and the landlord wasnt about to pay emergency Sunday rates for a job that wasnt actually dangerous. We booked it in Saturday morning, sorted, done before lunch.
Business owners are the other big group, and for them after hours often means avoiding disruption rather than avoiding inconvenience. A cafe in Riccarton wanted new power circuits run for extra fridges but obviously didnt want us pulling up floorboards during service hours. We did the whole job overnight, they opened Tuesday morning like nothing happened.
And plenty of people just genuinely dont notice a problem until they get home from work and its dark. Thats when you notice the hallway light doesnt work, or the oven wont turn on, or half the house has no power. Evening is when most people are actually standing in their kitchen looking at the problem.
We treat these differently on the phone because the response is different, but both get looked after.
Sparks, burning smells, smoke, shocks, exposed live wiring, or total power loss in a house with young kids, elderly residents or medical equipment. These jump the queue every time, day or night.
Powerpoint upgrades, extra circuits, dead outlets, appliance wiring, lighting installs, small switchboard tidy-ups. Annoying, not dangerous, and perfectly happy to wait for tomorrow evening.
A breaker that keeps tripping, an outlet thats warm to touch, flickering lights. Not smoking yet, but worth a call the same day rather than sitting on it for a week. We'll help you judge which bucket it's in.
You call or message us and tell us whats going on and roughly when suits. If its urgent we get someone moving straight away. If its not urgent we'll find you an evening or weekend slot, usually within a couple of days, sometimes the same evening if we've got someone free in your area.
We'll give you a rough idea of cost before anyone shows up, including whether an after-hours callout fee applies. No one likes getting surprised by the bill once the work is already done, so we'd rather tell you upfront and let you decide.
On the night or weekend, the electrician turns up, does the job, tests it properly, and if its notifiable electrical work you get a Certificate of Compliance same as you would for a daytime job. After hours doesnt mean cutting corners, it just means a different time on the clock.
Genuine emergency callouts late at night or on public holidays do carry a callout premium - thats fairly standard across the trade and it reflects an electrician actually being pulled out of bed. We tell you thats the case before we come, not after.
Scheduled after-hours work is different. If you book an evening or Saturday slot for a normal job with a bit of notice, its usually the same pricing as a weekday booking. We're not going to charge emergency rates for a powerpoint install just because it happens to be 6pm on a Wednesday.
Had a homeowner in Halswell ask straight out on the phone whether Saturday morning would cost extra for a light fitting swap. Honest answer was no, because it wasnt an emergency and we had a tech free that morning anyway. She booked it in, no surprises on the invoice. Thats how we'd rather do business.
Businesses often want the opposite of homeowners - not evenings because thats when staff are around, but genuinely quiet windows when nobody's trading.
Retail fitouts, restaurant kitchen upgrades, office rewiring - a lot of this gets scheduled overnight or on a Sunday specifically so the business doesnt lose a day of trade. We've done full panel upgrades in shops between closing and opening with everything back online and tested before staff arrived.
Bar in the CBD needed extra power circuits for new fridges and didnt want to shut for a weekday. We ran the whole job Sunday night through to early Monday, tested everything, and they opened right on time with a full complement of cold beer. That's the point of after-hours commercial work - the electrical gets done, the business doesnt notice.
Sparks, smoke, shocks and total power loss - any time, day or night, 365 days a year.
Dead outlets, extra powerpoints, GFCI installs - booked around your evenings or weekends.
New light fittings, downlights, outdoor and security lighting fitted after work or on a Saturday.
Upgrades and repairs scheduled for a quiet evening or weekend window, including for landlords between tenancies.
Fitouts, rewiring and panel upgrades scheduled outside trading hours so your business doesnt lose a day.
Tripping breakers, flickering lights and intermittent faults diagnosed whenever they're actually happening.
Whether its 7pm on a Tuesday or 3am on a public holiday, its the same licensed electricians turning up, not a subcontractor we've never met.
Every after-hours job is done by a fully licensed, registered electrician - not an apprentice sent out alone at night.
We tell you upfront if an after-hours premium applies, and when it doesn't. No surprises on the invoice.
Working family, shift worker, small business owner - we schedule around your actual availability, not just ours.
Whatever time it is, give us a call and we'll tell you honestly whether it needs someone tonight or can comfortably wait for a booking that suits you.
Call 027 484 0801 - evenings, nights, weekends and public holidays covered.