Bent Electrical Contractors

Bent Electrical Contractors is a Somerville outfit built for institutional and commercial work — hospitals, schools, data centers, the kind of jobs that call for a union crew and decades behind you. The company says founder Thomas Bent started it in 1979, working out of a station wagon; the Boston chapter of the electrical contractors' trade association counts it among New England's established full-service shops. It's now run by President Vincent Albano and CFO Ernest Jankowski, with crews staffed by IBEW Local 103 electricians. There isn't much to go on from actual customers, though. Google shows a 4.8-star average, but that's built on only five ratings, and BBB carries an A+ grade despite the business never having sought accreditation there — no complaints show up on either. What's public mostly amounts to third-party write-ups of the company's history and client roster rather than firsthand accounts of a particular job. Worth knowing: sources don't agree on exactly when this started. The website, that same trade association profile, and an industry directory all put the founding at 1979, while BBB and LinkedIn record 1980 as when the business was established or incorporated — probably just the gap between starting work and formal incorporation, but worth noting. For a straightforward commercial or institutional electrical job — new construction, fire alarms, power distribution, structured cabling — this is a shop with real longevity and union labor behind it. Given how little customer commentary exists to weigh against that reputation, it's worth asking for references from a recent, comparable project before signing on.