Fixing Electric Outlets

[Spartacus]

Is it alright to fix electric outlets by ourselves? There is an electric outlet in my house that is burned and I want to change it myself. Is this safe to do myself or should I call an electrician?

[Bird]

Is it alright to fix electric outlets by ourselves? There is an electric outlet in my house that is burned and I want to change it myself. Is this safe to do myself or should I call an electrician?

It's a simple repair . . . BUT . . . you want to be very sure you've turned off the right breaker to kill power to that outlet. You need a small screwdriver to remove the face plate, perhaps a larger one for the screws that hold the wires on the receptacle. You may or may not need some needle nosed pliers to bend wires. Do you know whether you have receptacles that have the wires held on by screws vs. the pressed in wires? And do you understand about reversed polarity? I hope you do have the 3-wires instead of 2, and probably only need to put the wires on the new receptacle in the same order they are on the old one.

[jimbrown]

Here you go

Replacing a Receptacle Tutorial

[monnie31]

I think as long as the main power is killed you should be okay. We have done minor repairs without issue. The larger issues we tend to hire an electrician to fix.