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When the problem is on the service side of your house (the meter base, the mast, the cable running down from the weatherhead), it’s a different kind of urgent than a dead outlet inside. This is the equipment that brings all your home’s power in from the utility line, and when it’s damaged, you can lose power to the whole house, not just one circuit.

What Counts as Service Repair

Electrical service repair covers damage to the equipment between the utility’s line and your main panel:

• A meter base that’s cracked, scorched, or pulled loose from the wall
• A weatherhead or mast pulled down or bent by a falling limb or a storm
• Service entrance cable that’s corroded, chewed by animals, or showing bare conductor
• A main disconnect that won’t hold, won’t reset, or shows signs of arcing
• Partial power loss: half your outlets working and half not, which often points to a failed connection at the service, not inside your panel

What Usually Causes It?

In Fort Worth, storms and trees are the two big culprits. A wind-snapped branch can rip the weatherhead and mast right off the roofline, taking the service entrance cable partway down with it. Heat and age do the rest over time: a meter base gasket fails, moisture gets in, and the connections inside start to corrode. Corroded service entrance cable is a slower problem: it looks fine from the ground until a connection finally lets go, which is usually when a homeowner notices half the house has no power while the other half is fine.

Utility Side vs. Homeowner Side: Who Fixes What?

Most of Fort Worth is served by Oncor, and the general rule is that the utility owns the poles, the overhead or underground service drop, and the meter itself. Everything from the weatherhead and meter base inward (the mast, the service entrance cable, the main disconnect) is the homeowner’s responsibility to repair. So if a storm takes down the line coming from the pole, that’s a utility call. If it snaps your mast or damages your meter base, that repair is on the homeowner’s side, and that’s the work we do. We can help sort out which side a given problem falls on before you call anyone.

Is a Damaged Meter Base or Mast an Emergency?

If your weatherhead or mast is down, if you can see exposed wire at the service entrance, or if the meter base looks scorched or has come loose from the wall, treat it as an emergency and don’t wait. A compromised service entrance is one of the more dangerous situations in residential electrical work. There’s no breaker between the meter and the utility line to shut it off. Don’t touch it, don’t try to prop anything back into place, and call us or Oncor right away. See our emergency electrician page for what to do while you wait.

What the Repair Looks Like

We assess the damage first (meter base, mast, service entrance cable, and main disconnect) and confirm with Oncor whether the utility’s side needs work too before we start on ours. Depending on what’s damaged, the repair might be a meter base replacement, a new mast and weatherhead, a run of new service entrance cable, or all three together if a storm took out the whole assembly. Because this work touches the point where utility power enters your home, Oncor typically needs to disconnect power at the meter before we can safely repair it, then reconnect once the repair passes inspection.

Permits and Licensing

Service repair work requires a permit in Fort Worth, and it has to be done by a licensed electrician. This isn’t a category where a shortcut is worth the risk. Neighbors Electric is licensed under TECL #41555, and we pull the permit and get the repair inspected so there’s a record the work was done correctly. That matters for insurance, too, especially after storm damage, where you’ll likely be filing a claim. If you want a second opinion on whether other parts of your system came through a storm undamaged, an electrical inspection can cover that at the same visit.

Flat-Rate, Even for Emergencies

We quote service repairs flat-rate once we’ve seen the damage, including emergency and after-storm calls. If you’re also dealing with an outdated 100-amp service that’s overdue for a bump to 200 amps, that’s a bigger conversation: see electrical service upgrade for what that involves.

Meter base damaged, mast pulled down, or losing power to part of your Fort Worth home? Call (817) 533-0943 or contact us online. We handle service repair calls fast.