Smoke Detectors, CO Alarms & Electrical Safety Inspections

Battery alarms stuck to the ceiling with the battery long since pulled are the state of fire protection in too many Rock Island County houses. Hardwired, interconnected smoke and carbon monoxide alarms with battery backup sound together throughout the house when any one trips, which is the difference between waking up and not when a basement fire starts under a sleeping second floor.

Interconnected alarms for houses and rentals

A hardwired alarm system for a home in Moline or Rock Island runs a circuit with a third interconnect conductor to every sleeping room, the hall outside them, and each level including the basement, with carbon monoxide detection near the sleeping areas and the furnace. In plaster houses that is fishing work; in ranches with attic access it is a morning. Landlords in East Moline, Silvis, and Milan use the same installation to bring a rental unit up to what the city's rental inspection expects, and the electrician provides a written record of what went where. Monitored alarm systems that dial out are a licensed private alarm contractor's work in Illinois and are quoted by that trade, not this one.

Whole-home electrical safety inspections

Before an insurance renewal, after buying a house, or when a family member moves into a home that has not been looked at in decades, a safety walk-through is the cheapest electrical visit there is. The electrician opens the panel, checks for double-taps and undersized breakers, tests a sample of receptacles for grounding and polarity, looks at the attic and basement wiring for knob-and-tube, cloth, or aluminum, checks the water-pipe bond and the ground rods, and writes up what he found in priority order. The findings become quotes only if you want them to.

Surge protection

A whole-house surge protector at the panel absorbs the spikes that ride in when MidAmerican's lines come back after an outage, which in this county happens several times a year. It is inexpensive, installs in an hour, and protects the furnace control board, the refrigerator, and the garage-door opener that a plug strip never sees. It is usually quoted alongside a panel upgrade or an alarm install because the electrician is already at the panel.

What an inspection does not do

An electrical safety inspection is a visual and instrument check of accessible wiring and devices by an electrician registered in your town; it is not a code certification of the house and does not open walls. Where it finds gas appliance or plumbing concerns, those go to the licensed plumbing trade; where it finds furnace or air-conditioner faults, to a mechanical contractor. The report says which is which.