Outlets and switches are the most common electrical work in the county and the most often done badly by the previous owner. Three-prong receptacles screwed onto two-wire cable with no ground, backstabbed connections that loosen with every plug-in, dimmers that hum because they were never meant for LED bulbs. An electrician sorts the cosmetic from the hazardous in a walk-through and quotes the list.
Two-prong outlets and what to do with them
A large share of the houses west of I-74 in Moline and across the older half of Rock Island were wired before grounded receptacles were the rule, and many still carry two-prong outlets or, worse, three-prong outlets with nothing on the ground screw. There are three honest answers. Run a new grounded circuit where the room needs one. Replace the receptacle with a GFCI and label it as ungrounded, which is a recognized method that protects people even though it does not ground equipment. Or, where the wiring is cloth-insulated and crumbling, treat the outlet as a symptom and look at the rewiring page. The electrician tells you which applies to which room.
GFCI and AFCI protection
Ground-fault protection belongs anywhere water and electricity share a room: kitchen counters, bathrooms, garages, unfinished basements, outdoors, laundry areas. Rock Island County basements that took water in 2019 are the case in point. Arc-fault protection, which trips on the signature of a loose or damaged connection rather than on a shock, matters most in bedrooms and living areas with old wiring behind the plaster. Both can be provided at the breaker or at the first device on a circuit, and the choice depends on the panel you have; a quote explains it.
Dedicated circuits
A window air conditioner in a second-floor bedroom on the East Moline hill, a chest freezer in a Milan garage, a microwave that shares a circuit with the toaster, a treadmill in a Silvis basement: every one of those trips a breaker somewhere in the county every week of the summer. A dedicated circuit from the panel to a single receptacle ends it. The run is quoted by length and by how the wire gets from the panel to the room, which in a plaster house means fishing rather than opening walls.
Switches, dimmers, and smart devices
Three-way switches wired wrong by a previous owner, dimmers that flicker LED bulbs, timer switches for the porch light, and smart switches that need a neutral the box does not have are all routine. Exterior receptacles get in-use covers, and anything on a deck or by a pool gets ground-fault protection. Prices for device work are usually per device plus the trip, and the quote lists them that way.