Voltiq started in a garage in St Johns in 2008 with one van and a second-hand bender. The crew is bigger now, but the promise has not changed.
We grew slowly, on purpose.
Every year we turn down more work than we take. Growing past the point where the owner can still walk a job site is how contractors start missing details, and details are the whole job in this trade.
Ray started Voltiq after twelve years as a commercial sparky, tired of watching quotes get written by people who had never seen the building. That frustration became the first rule of the business, and it has not moved since: nobody prices a job they have not stood inside.
It is a slower way to run a contracting firm. It costs us the jobs that go to whoever answers fastest with a number. What it buys is a book of work where the final invoice matches the quote, and customers who call us back four years later for the next thing.
The crew covers Portland metro from the workshop on Ampere Row, split between residential upgrades, commercial fit-outs, and the overnight emergency roster that everyone takes a turn on. Nobody is exempt from the phone, including Ray.
We have hired four people in six years. Everyone joins on a paid trial fortnight, works alongside a lead, and gets a straight answer at the end of it. It is the only part of the business we are deliberately bad at scaling.
Eighteen years, four vans, one workshop.
Licensed and trading
Ray leaves a commercial firm, buys a second-hand bender, and registers Voltiq Electrical LLC out of a garage in St Johns.
First maintenance contract
A Swan Island logistics operator signs the first scheduled maintenance agreement. It is still running.
Overnight roster begins
Enough late calls to justify a proper rota. Every electrician takes a turn on the emergency phone.
Ampere Row workshop
Out of the garage and into a real workshop, with a stores counter open to trade.
EV charging division
Tomas joins to run car charging full time. Four hundred installs and every rebate form filed since.
2,400th job signed off
A panel upgrade in Laurelhurst, inspected on a Thursday afternoon.
Three rules nobody breaks.
Nobody prices a job they have not seen
Phone estimates are guesses dressed up as numbers. We turn up, open the panel, count the circuits, and write the price down. It costs us leads and it is why our variation rate sits under three percent.
The panel gets labelled before we leave
Every circuit tested, tagged, and printed on a schedule inside the door. It adds twenty minutes to the job and saves the next electrician an afternoon.
If we installed it, we come back for it
Three years on workmanship, no argument, no call-out fee, whoever is on shift that day. A warranty you have to negotiate is not a warranty.
Who turns up at your door.
Ray Okonkwo
Twelve years commercial before starting Voltiq in 2008. Still prices most residential jobs himself.
Nadia Brandt
Runs tenant fit-outs and maintenance contracts. Reads a set of drawings faster than anyone here.
Marco Ferreira
Panel upgrades and rewires. Known for leaving a site tidier than he found it.
Ivan Kovac
Carries the overnight phone more often than the roster requires. Fault finding is his idea of fun.