Licensed electricians serving Fort Madison and Lee County, Iowa.
★★★★★ More than 80 five-star Google reviews · BBB Rated · Licensed IA + IL · Available 24/7
About half the homes in Fort Madison were built before 1950
Fort Madison was built around an actual fort — a frontier outpost from 1808 that’s been rebuilt more than once. That long memory shows up in the houses, too. The median home in Fort Madison was built in 1952, and roughly 46% of the city’s homes went up before 1950. That’s part of what gives Fort Madison its character — but it also means a lot of homes still run on wiring that was installed decades before modern code. Knob-and-tube wiring, two-prong outlets that aren’t grounded, fuse boxes instead of breaker panels, electrical service rated for the appliances of 60 years ago. If any of that sounds like your house, you’re not alone. And it’s fixable.
We’ve done this work in older homes across the area
Burlington and Keokuk have a lot of the same historic homes as Fort Madison — homes from the late 1800s and early 1900s that have been quietly running on wiring from a different era. We have 20+ years experience upgrading panels, replacing knob-and-tube, and bringing historic homes up to current code without tearing into more wall than we have to.
What we do for Fort Madison homeowners
Most of what we do in Fort Madison is residential work in homes that have been around for a while — old neighborhoods downtown with knob-and-tube wiring still in the walls, and postwar tract homes with 60-amp fuse boxes that were built for a different era of appliances. We also do commercial work; Fort Madison has its own industrial footprint between the BNSF rail yard, the old state penitentiary, and the Sheaffer factory legacy, and that creates real electrical service demand on the commercial side too. A few of the calls we take most often:
- Whole-home rewires — replacing old or unsafe wiring throughout the house, including knob-and-tube
- Electrical panel upgrades — fuse box to modern breaker panel, 100-amp service to 200-amp
- Ungrounded outlet replacement — bringing 2-prong outlets up to current code, including GFCI where needed
- Service upgrades — for homes with electrical service rated for a different era
- EV charger installation — Level 2 chargers at home, even for older homes that need a service upgrade first
- Generator installation — we’re a Generac dealer
- Smart-home wiring and lighting — when you want your historic home to keep up with modern demands
- Commercial and industrial work — about 20% of what we do; if it’s electrical, we can handle it!
24/7 Emergency Electrician
For the calls that can’t wait until Monday morning.
Don’t See What You Need?
Call us! Every electrical need is unique. We will walk through your exact issue and find a solution.
Same transparent pricing across all of Southeast Iowa
Most electricians in this part of Iowa won’t show you a number until they’re already at your door. We do it the other way around. Our pricing page lists the prices for the work we do most often — service calls, panel upgrades, rewires, EV chargers, generators — and the price we publish is the price we quote. The only thing that changes a quote after that is something we couldn’t see from the outside (the kind of thing nobody can quote sight-unseen, like asbestos in old plaster). If we find something like that on a Fort Madison job, we stop, show you what we found, and update the quote before we keep working. Same way we’d want it if it were our house.
What sets us apart from a typical Southeast Iowa electrician
Most electricians in this part of Iowa work the same way: you call, they come out, they tell you the price at your kitchen table, you decide on the spot. That works if you have time and the patience to compare three quotes that all arrived at your door. We do it differently. Our pricing is published before you ever pick up the phone, our 24-hour callback promise is on every call, and we tell you what we’d want to know if it were our house — including when we’d recommend a different approach than the one you called about.
What Fort Madison Customers Say
★★★★★
“I called several electricians to get an estimate on wiring up a new garage. Troy was the only one that responded to me. He does outstanding work and is reasonably priced. I hold great value in a business that responds to my phone calls and appreciates me as a customer. I now know an electrician that I can count on. I’ll recommend him to anyone! Thanks Troy you’re the best!”
— Tim H. · Google review · September 2025
The houses around Fort Madison aren’t all the same
Fort Madison’s housing isn’t one thing. Down near the river and through the older neighborhoods, you’ve got homes that go back to the 1880s and 1890s — knob-and-tube wiring under plaster, two-prong outlets, fuse boxes that were sized for a refrigerator and a couple of lamps. North and west of downtown, the postwar tract neighborhoods from the 1950s and early 1960s are mostly cloth-insulated copper wiring with 60-amp panels — they need service upgrades more than they need rewires. The newer subdivisions out toward the highway corridor are modern panels with grounding and AFCI/GFCI protection, where the work tends to be EV chargers, generator interlock, or whatever you’re adding next. We’ve worked in all three.
A note about the Fort
Fort Madison was named for the first permanent U.S. military fortification on the Upper Mississippi, built in 1808. It was burned down by its own garrison in 1813 to keep it from falling to British-allied forces during the War of 1812 — the only real War of 1812 battle fought west of the Mississippi. Early settlers built their homes near the ruins and named the town for the fort. A replica of Old Fort Madison still stands today in Riverview Park, just a few blocks from the river. It’s a good reminder of what holds up over time: things that are built right, by people who know what they’re doing.
Licensed, insured, and easy to call
- Licensed and insured in Iowa and Illinois (IA Contractor Registration #C143094)
- BBB Rated
- More than 80 five-star Google reviews at a 5.0 average
- Available 24/7 — call, text, or use our quote form
- 24-hour callback promise — every call gets a response inside one business day
- No surprises — we stop and check in before any scope or price changes
Common questions from Fort Madison homeowners
My home was built in the 1920s and still has the original wiring. Do I need to rewire?
Not every old home needs a full rewire, but most homes built before 1950 have at least some wiring that wouldn’t pass a modern inspection. The most common safety issues are knob-and-tube wiring with no grounding wire, brittle insulation, and undersized service for today’s appliances. The honest answer is we’d need to take a look to tell you for sure — and we can usually do that with photos and a phone call before anyone comes out.
What’s the difference between a fuse box and a breaker panel? Do I need to upgrade?
Fuse boxes were standard until the 1960s. They work, but they were designed for the electrical loads of that era — a refrigerator, a few lamps, a radio. Modern homes pull a lot more current, and a 60-amp fuse box can be a fire risk under that load. Upgrading to a 100-amp or 200-amp breaker panel brings the house up to current code and gives you the headroom for everything from a new HVAC unit to an EV charger.
How long does a whole-home rewire take in an older home?
It depends on the size of the home and how the walls and ceilings are built — plaster-and-lath takes longer than drywall. Most rewires we do in older Fort Madison-area homes run between three days and two weeks. You don’t usually have to move out; we work room by room and keep power running where we can.
What does a panel upgrade cost in Fort Madison?
Fort Madison’s older neighborhoods downtown have a lot of 60-amp fuse boxes that need to come up to 100 or 200 amps before they can safely run modern appliances, and some of them will need service entrance work too if the meter base is from the same era. Our pricing page lists the prices for panel upgrades, and those prices are the same across our whole service area. The final number depends on what we find when we look — every panel upgrade is a little different. If we need to do anything beyond the standard scope, we tell you before we do it.
Are you really 24/7, or is that marketing?
Real 24/7 for emergencies. If you’ve got sparks, smoke, a panel that’s hot to the touch, or a power loss that isn’t a utility outage, call (309) 333-3912 — you’ll get a person. Routine work happens during business hours like anyone else.
Need an electrician in Fort Madison? Let’s talk.
We’d rather answer a quick question on the phone than have you wonder. Call or text (309) 333-3912 — we’ll get back to you within 24 hours. Or use the quote form below, and we’ll come back with a real number, not a sales pitch.