Since 2018
About Colonial Electric
We take care of your complete electrical system.
A veteran-owned shop in Colonie serving Albany, Schenectady and Saratoga counties. We price every job before we start, we background check and drug test every technician, and when we say we are coming today, we finish the work today.
Why this company exists
The pier in our logo is a real pier
Larry Barath
Owner · US Navy Veteran
Larry Barath grew up at Colonial Beach, at the end of a quarter-mile dirt road. Small camp houses along the creek, nothing much to look at from the outside, warm inside, and every one of them with a pier out back.
The pier in the Colonial Electric logo is the one in front of his grandfather’s house. He spent his childhood sitting on it, waiting for the boat to come back around into the creek so he could see what they caught that day.
That is where the name comes from. Not a marketing exercise.
He did not want to be an electrician
His father and his uncle were both electricians. At seventeen, at twenty, through his time in the Navy, it never appealed to him. He liked building things out of wood. Decks, fences, additions.
His uncle told him: if you want to support a family one day, become an electrician.
He went to a meeting with them, saw the camaraderie in the room, and applied for the apprenticeship. He was turned down the first year. He applied again the second year and got in. He calls it one of the best decisions he ever made.
Integrity with every connection
Where the standard came from
“I learned that being honorable and following through is important. You have to do what you say, because other people are depending on you. If you say you’re going to do this, and this is your job, you do it to the best of your ability.”
Larry served in the Navy for a short time and admits he took it for granted while he was in it. The lesson landed later. It is why this company runs on written prices, honored quotes, and technicians who show up when they said they would.
What that means in your house
Four things we will not bend on
A written price before the tools come out
Same task, same price, from a published guide. If we misjudge the job, that is our problem to eat, not a change order on your invoice.
We finish the day we show up
We book one or two calls a day on purpose, so the technician who diagnoses it is the one who fixes it, before he leaves.
No band-aids
We spend a lot of our week undoing other people's shortcuts. We would rather not have the job than tape it up and take your money.
Nobody in your house we would not send to our own family
Every residential technician is background checked and drug tested. That is why there are only two of them.
Questions people ask about the company
Who owns Colonial Electric?
Larry Barath. He started the company in 2018 after coming up through an apprenticeship; his father and his uncle were both electricians. He served in the Navy, and he says the follow-through he learned there is where the company standard comes from.
Why is there a pier in your logo?
It is a real pier, the one in front of Larry’s grandfather’s house at Colonial Beach, where he grew up. That is where the name comes from too.
How big is the company?
Small on purpose. The residential team is two technicians, both background checked and drug tested, because Larry will not send anyone to your house he would not send to his own mother’s. Meet them.
Do you work outside Albany?
Yes: Albany, Schenectady and Saratoga counties, roughly 40 miles around our shop in Colonie, and we are licensed in Troy as well.
What does integrity with every connection actually mean?
A written price before the tools come out, the technician who diagnoses the job finishes it, no band-aids on someone else’s shortcut, and nobody in your house we would not send to our own family. The price is in writing so you can hold us to it.
Meet the people who will be in your house
Two residential technicians, both vetted, both named before they knock. Serving Colonie, Albany, Schenectady, Troy, Niskayuna, Latham, Saratoga Springs, Clifton Park, Guilderland and the surrounding Capital Region.
Or call us at (518) 949-9716