Quinn Hineman began his career as an electrician after completing basic & advanced electrical courses at the age of sixteen, and worked for Comet Electrical in FL until he graduated high school. Upon his move to Asheville, Quinn worked for an electrical contractor to gain further experience in the electrical field.

In 1975, Quinn moved to Boone and began working for Jackie Ward, the owner of Mountaineer Electric. Quinn worked for Jackie until he had accumulated enough hours to take the state boards to become a licensed electrical contractor for the state of NC. Upon completion of the state boards, Quinn started his own electrical contracting business.

Appalachian Electric Company was born in 1977. The shop was an old, falling down tobacco barn in Bethel. Quinn's first work van was a 1966 Ford with 205,000 miles, which was bought from the local school board for only $250. Quinn did his own stenciling, lettering and painted lightning bolts for his first work van. A pretty crude start, but one has to start somewhere!

In 1980, Quinn's business had grown enough to hire his first helper, a young man named Gary Trivette. That was back in the days when Quinn was doing most of his work on Beech Mountain. In fact, most of the new homes built in the late 70's & 80's on Beech Mtn. were wired exclusively by Quinn and even today, we have people call us who have bought a home that still has our Appalachian Electric Company sticker on the breaker box.

As Boone grew in the 1980's, Appalachian Electric started doing more work in and around the Boone/Blowing Rock area. As time progressed, we picked up many local accounts such as Tweetsie, Appalachian Management Co., Glens of Grandfather, The Ponds, Hound Ears, SQS, Brass Exchange, and many more, too numerous to list here. Many of our clients have with us for as long as twenty years!

During the early 1980's, Quinn hired another electrician, an older gentleman named Blaine Ward to help him with his electrical business that was growing day by day. He continued to work for Quinn until Blaine passed away in the early 1990's.

Appalachian Electric Company continued to grow over the years and today we have three crews, with Quinn primarily doing the one man service work, estimates, etc. while the other guys do the bigger two man electrical jobs. The shop has also moved. Our office, shop, and personal home are in the Foscoe/Grandfather community on Highway 105.

Today our coverage area encompasses Watauga, Avery, Ashe, Wilkes, & Caldwell counties. Our builders range from small one crew contractors to large contractors with many houses going at once.

Throughout the years, we have contemplated adding more electricians to our growing business, but we felt by growing larger we would lose the personal touch that we pride ourselves upon so much. Keeping the business small allows us to maintain a mom and pop feel, which most people seem to appreciate in the fast paced world we live in. Even today , we try our best to personally answer our business phone and, on the rare occasions when we are out, we try to make sure that we return our calls in a timely manner.

Whether we are doing a simple service call, rewiring your home/office, or wiring the train shop at Tweetsie, we strive to keep a personal touch in our business, because we care about our clients and consider each one a friend! Being prompt, courteous, dependable, punctual, clean, and striving to do our best are part of what keeps us as busy as we are! Most of our business today is generated through word of mouth rather then expensive advertising. In fact, many of our clients are referrals from other clients throughout the years that continue to tell others about us!