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📍 Hudson County · 07032 · About 12 minutes from our Jersey City shop

Electrician in Kearny, NJ

Malfettone Electric is a licensed electrician serving Kearny, NJ — family-owned since 1977 and holding New Jersey Electrical Contractor License #17130. We work Kearny's 1900s–1930s two-families off Kearny Avenue, the Arlington and Manor sections, and the industrial corridor along the Passaic, filing every permit with Kearny's Construction Code Enforcement Department and coordinating PSE&G ourselves.

Kearny AvenueArlingtonThe ManorDevon & Elm StreetsSchuyler AvenueThe Passaic Avenue industrial corridor
NJ Contractor #17130
Fully Insured
Permits Pulled
PSE&G Coordinated
4.9★ · 128+ Reviews
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Local Housing Stock

What Kearny homes are actually wired like

Kearny's residential core went up between roughly 1900 and 1930, and it is overwhelmingly two-family: a frame or brick house with one flat over another, a shared basement, and a service that was sized for two households running lamps and a radio. That is the single fact that drives most of our work here. We regularly find 60-amp fuse boxes and original 100-amp panels still carrying two units, Federal Pacific and Zinsco panels from the 1960s and 1970s updates, and cloth-insulated branch wiring behind plaster. The Arlington and Manor sections north of the Belleville Turnpike have more detached single-families from the 1920s–1950s, which are easier jobs with their own service drops. And then there is the Passaic Avenue and Schuyler Avenue industrial belt — warehouses, light manufacturing and fleet yards where the work is three-phase service, lighting retrofits and commercial code corrections rather than anything residential.

nearly 50 years of this exact housing stock is why we can quote Kearny work accurately from photos instead of guessing on site. See the Hudson County overview for how the county compares town to town.

Permits & Timeline

Kearny Construction Code Enforcement Department, Town Hall, 402 Kearny Avenue

Kearny permits electrical work through the Construction Code Enforcement Department at Town Hall on Kearny Avenue, under the NJ Uniform Construction Code. It is a walk-in counter filing, and straightforward residential permits are commonly issued in about 5–7 business days — the department has 20 working days by statute, but panel and service permits rarely take that long. Fees for typical residential work run $150–$300 and are included in our quoted price. We file the application and meet the inspector; you never go to Town Hall.

Utility Coordination

PSE&G in Kearny

Kearny is PSE&G territory. Any service change means PSE&G pulls the meter before the swap and reconnects afterward, currently 1–3 weeks of scheduling once the permit is approved. The Kearny wrinkle is two-family metering: if the upgrade adds or separates a meter, PSE&G needs to set the equipment and that adds time. We identify the metering situation at the estimate so the timeline in your written quote is the real one.

Common Questions

Electrician FAQs — Kearny, NJ

How much does an electrician cost in Kearny?
Small defined work — an outlet, a switch, a light fixture — runs about $150–$400. A diagnostic service call is $150–$250 and is credited toward the repair. A 100-amp or fuse-box to 200-amp service upgrade is $3,500–$4,800 with the Kearny permit and PSE&G coordination included. Two-family service separations and second meters are quoted on site because the scope depends entirely on the existing metering. Commercial and industrial work is quoted after a walk-through. Every number is confirmed in writing before anything starts.
How long does a Kearny electrical permit take?
Kearny's Construction Code Enforcement Department at 402 Kearny Avenue is a counter filing under the NJ Uniform Construction Code. Straightforward residential permits are commonly issued in about 5–7 business days; the department's statutory window is 20 working days, but panel work rarely runs that long. Fees are $150–$300 and are included in our price. PSE&G's 1–3 week disconnect and reconnect scheduling is usually what sets the overall timeline, not the permit.
How do panel upgrades work in a Kearny two-family?
The question is never just which panel — it is which meter, and whose service. Most Kearny two-families have either a single shared service or a small meter stack in the basement, and upgrading one unit can involve the building's main disconnect and the meter bank. We map the whole service before quoting, so the scope covers what actually has to change, both units stay code-compliant, and there is no mid-job discovery that the service cannot carry the new load. Where a meter has to be added or separated, PSE&G sets that equipment and we build the extra time into the schedule.
Do you do commercial and industrial electrical work in Kearny?
Regularly — it is a large share of what we do here. The Passaic Avenue and Schuyler Avenue corridor and the Meadowlands industrial parks are full of warehouses, light manufacturing and fleet yards that need three-phase service work, high-bay and LED lighting retrofits, dedicated circuits for new equipment, and corrections flagged at a municipal or insurance inspection. We pull the permit, provide the certificate of insurance the lease or the property manager requires, and schedule around your operating hours where we can.
Why do so many Kearny homes still have knob-and-tube wiring?
Because most of Kearny's residential blocks were built between 1900 and 1930, when knob-and-tube was the standard method, and because a two-family that has never been gut-renovated has had no reason to open the walls. It usually surfaces one of three ways: an insurance carrier refuses to renew, a buyer's inspector flags it before closing, or we find it while replacing the panel. It is not always an emergency, but it cannot be extended or added to under current code, so a partial or whole-home rewire is the honest fix. We price it after seeing what is actually behind the plaster, not from a formula.
Who Wrote This

Third-generation owner of Malfettone Electric, family-owned in Jersey City since 1977. Michael has personally run panel upgrades, rewires and service changes across Kearny and the rest of Hudson County— filing the permits, submitting the PSE&G applications, and meeting the inspectors himself. The prices and timelines on this page come from our own recent Kearny jobs.

NJ Electrical Contractor License #17130 · Family-owned since 1977 · Hudson & Essex County · Read Michael's full bio →

Need an electrician in Kearny?

Send us photos or hop on a short video call — most Kearny jobs can be quoted without a truck roll. Written price, permit included, nearly 50 years of doing this work here.