So it looks like everything is falling into place for us to be in our dear departed neighbor's house we are purchasing from his son and two daughters by November 30th or so.

During the home inspection one of the things the inspector noted were inadequate smoke detectors. I think our 91 year old neighbor only had like 3 in the entire house and no CO detectors at all.

We are buying the house "As-Is" with one seller concession for radon remediation which came in at 4.5 picocuries, just over the EPA limit of 4.0

The bright side of all this is the appraisal came back at $12,000 ("AS-IS" the appraiser noted) above what we offered and the co-executors accepted for the house, YAY.

I will be taking out the existing smokes and installing all new ones with CO detectors as well to have a fresh start and wanted to know if my numbers are OK here.

This house was built in 1951 so NO open floorplan type layout, not sure if that makes a difference?

What I figure:

Basement: Large with two sides separated by stairs
2 combo Smoke/CO's 1 on each side of basement
1 combo Smoke/CO at top of basement stairs

First floor: hallway with living room, den, dining room, kitchen, breakfast nook
1 combo Smoke/CO in first floor hallway

Second floor: hallway with 3 bedrooms
1 combo Smoke/CO in hallway
1 Smoke in each of the 3 bedrooms

Third floor: bedroom on one side, attic on other side
1 combo Smoke/CO in bedroom

My questions:
Is this adequate? Overkill?
Do I need more coverage on first floor?
Is one CO detector in second floor hall enough or should there be one outside each bedroom?
Do I need one in attic side?

sounds good. You could double check with your inspector. They would know the local code requirements for new construction. Commonly you put a smoke in all bedrooms and halls. CO in halls within so many feet of bedrooms.

Good luck with your new purchase.

Replace the smokes with standard Kiddie smokes no real need to buy the combos for every detector.
Buy 1 Nest Protect for each floor and put it near the gas appliance on that floor.

When we built the house a couple years ago, we had to have detectors just inside and just outside reach bedroom, and they are all networked together.

I would not buy or install a combo smoke/CO detector.

Smoke rises so the detector should be high on the wall or on the ceiling.

CO settles to the floor so the detector should be low on the wall.

Edit: Well, according to Google, CO is only slightly lighter than air. Recommended level is 5 feet above ground (or the floor.)

Residential smoke detectors are only good for up to 10 years while carbon monoxide for 5 years. Honestly, I hate both of them because of the freaking battery replacements/chirping and always an odd ball time of night.

I work for a large governmental complex and we have ZERO smoke detectors in our buildings. They use heat detectors instead. I just find it very odd that there isn't better technology for the residential market.

The house I grew up in we had one smoke detector and no one died. It may not be to code, but some of these codes don't make a lick of sense either.

You have about 2 minutes to get out once a house catches fire before it will flash over. Checkout this NFPA video on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JU59Nsv2vg and go to the 2:45 minute mark.

Check out last week's Ask This Old House. They did a smoke alarm replacement and went over some of the codes in the episode.

https://www.thisoldhouse.com/w...smoke-detector-valve

Code requires one per bedroom, One in hallways outside of bedrooms (two if bedrooms are over 25' apart), and one per floor even if there are no bedrooms. I suggest adding to that any areas separated by a door, such as craft room, reloading room, office, etc. CO can be combo unit, battery only, or plug in. I prefer combo since they set off all alarms.

You can use these to expand coverage without having an electrician run wiring. I recommend hardwired over wireless if not cost prohibitive.

New locations.

Existing locations

If you do go wireless, then get battery or plug in COs for hallways.

Smoke detector locations.

NFPA detector locations.

So the combo ones are not a good idea? Sounds like the smoke detector will last for 10 years while the CO detector will only be good for 5 years? What’s the point of that then? Sounds like you basically are getting only 5 years out of one then?

Brands: looks like First Alert and Kidde are the two big players? Is one brand better than the other?

I’m also reading that more and more fire departments are recommending to get the photoelectric type and NOT the ionization type? Sounds like the photoelectric are much quicker to detect smoke and fire than the ionization kind.

Most CO detectors have 10 year warranties, some smokes are 5, some ten.

Ionization catches flaming fires faster, photoelectric catches smoldering faster. If cost doesn't matter I would recommend dual sensor hardwired to above listed locations.

I always emphasize to my customers, seconds save lives in a fire. This is not am area to skimp on.

ETA brands - Go with either one, you are GTG. Nest and other smart SDs, no clue, installed plenty of them, we don't supply them or warranty them so I can't say if the fail or last any longer than the ones with longer track records.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Skins2881,

What do you have in the house for gas appliances?

quote:

Originally posted by DCFD4:
What do you have in the house for gas appliances?

Right now, nothing.

Oil-fired hot air furnace, oil-fired water heater being switched out for an electric for now. Will be looking to convert to gas next year but just can’t get it done this year.

If everything in your house is electric and you have no attached garage you should only need smoke detectors and not CO detectors (although they're still good to have).

CO is a odorless gas that you cannot see which is usually produced by something that burns a fossil fuel....(fires produce CO also but a smoke detector will pick that up far before CO). A oil or gas furnace, engines running, things like that. I like the dual units.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:

quote:

Originally posted by DCFD4:
What do you have in the house for gas appliances?

Right now, nothing.

Oil-fired hot air furnace, oil-fired water heater being switched out for an electric for now. Will be looking to convert to gas next year but just can’t get it done this year.

So once the water heater gets switched out for electric you'll only run the possibility of CO while using your oil furnace in the colder months. Buy a plug in CO detector w/ battery backup for each level of the house. Hallway outside the bedrooms, a large central room on the 1st floor and one for the basement. You can put them away during the off months if you wish.
When the furnace is not in use you have no worry for CO because nothing else in your house can produce it.

Lots of ideas above for smoke detectors but I believe your original concern was for CO.

On a side note, don't put any smoke detectors in your attic. The heat/cold, humidity and dust will destroy them in no time.

Just checked mine. One expired in 2004 and the other in 2006. Thanks for the thread