Emily's family
A Home Upgrade that Saved 4 Lives

Here’s a story about a pesky upgrade that nobody wants to spend money on but it does save lives! We recently were involved in a remodel in St. Louis County and as in most municipalities they make you upgrade the smoke and carbon monoxide detection system to be hard wired together. A new smoke/monoxide detector is often not where you want to put your dollars in a kitchen or bath remodel. Here is an actual text we received one month after completion of the kitchen remodel.

Hi everyone!

I just wanted to let you know how much I value what you did to our house. Monday evening at 10:15 our smoke alarms started going off. Not realizing they were also voice alarms (cool feature!) we were surprised to hear a voice say,

          “Warning, carbon monoxide detected in basement. Evacuate.”

So, we called the fire department and they came out. Sure enough, we had a carbon monoxide leak coming from our hot water heater. They told us that the alarms detect a problem when levels reach 30. By the time the fire department arrived it was at 50 and when they located the problem as the water heater, the reading was 200. Your renovation and installation of those smoke and carbon monoxide detectors quite possibly saved my family’s lives. So, again, from the bottom of my heart, I thank you SO much. For everything!

Emily and her husband Dwight have 2 children under the age of 8. We are overjoyed at the outcome! Thank you for sending us the note Emily. We hope it saves more lives.