Smoke and carbon monoxide detectors are the simplest life-safety equipment in your home — and the most commonly neglected. Expired units, missing bedrooms coverage, and battery-only detectors where code now calls for hardwired interconnected ones.
We install and replace smoke and CO detectors across Stuart and Martin County: hardwired with battery backup, interconnected so every alarm sounds together, placed to code.
What Code Calls For
Current standards call for smoke detectors in every bedroom, outside each sleeping area, and on every level including the basement — interconnected, so when one sounds, they all sound. Carbon monoxide detectors go outside sleeping areas and near fuel-burning appliances.
Older Stuart homes often have a single hallway detector from 1998 — or none at all. When we do detector upgrades, we bring the coverage to current standards, not just swap the old unit for a new one in the same lonely spot.
Hardwired and Interconnected
Hardwired detectors draw power from the house with battery backup for outages — no relying on a 9-volt that died in 2019. Interconnection wires them together (or links them wirelessly in retrofit situations) so a fire in the garage wakes the bedrooms.
We run the wiring, place the units, test the interconnection, and show you the hush and test functions before we leave.
Replacement: They Expire
Smoke detectors expire — the sensors degrade, and manufacturers stamp a ten-year replacement date on every unit. If your detectors are yellowed, beep mysteriously, or predate your mortgage, they are overdue.
During electrical inspections and panel work we check detector age and coverage as a matter of course, because it is the rare upgrade that is cheap, fast, and genuinely life-safety.
Common questions
How often should smoke detectors be replaced?
Every ten years — the sensors degrade even if the test button still beeps. Check the manufacture date stamped on the back of each unit.
Where should CO detectors go?
Outside sleeping areas and near fuel-burning appliances like gas water heaters, furnaces, and fireplaces. If your home has an attached garage, CO coverage near the bedrooms matters.
Can you make my existing detectors interconnected?
Often yes — either by wiring them together or with wireless-interconnect units that link without new wire. We evaluate what's in place and recommend the cleanest path.
My detector chirps even with a new battery. Why?
Usually end-of-life — the unit is telling you the sensor expired, not the battery. Time to replace it.
Related services
Ready when you are.
For fastest service, call now. Prefer to book online? Send a request and we'll call you back to schedule.
(561) 786-1337