Thinking of finishing or remodeling your Kansas City area basement? Before you start tearing down drywall and laying cement, make sure you lay out a solid execution plan that includes these three electrical needs. Whether it’s to stay up to date with city codes, or just to make sure your family is safe, don’t forget to add these very important electrical additions.

Hardwired Smoke Detectors

When it comes to smoke detectors, it’s better to be safe than sorry. We always suggest installing hardwired smoke detectors in basements instead of single, battery operated ones. Why? Because they keep your family safer in the instance of a fire in your basement. Hardwired smoke detectors can be hooked up to a system where all the smoke alarms in your house can “talk” to each other. So, if a fire happened to start in your basement floor, the alarms on your ground and upper floors would simultaneously alert when the alarms in your basement go off. Without hardwired alarms, your alarms on the upper floors of your home wouldn’t alert until the smoke reached those floors, which would mean much more damage would already have been done.

Related Read: Add These 3 Electrical Needs BEFORE You Remodel

Tamper Resistant Outlets

Another electrical need to consider is the need for tamper resistant outlets like Ground Fault Circuit Interrupters (GFCI) and Arc-Fault Circuit Interrupters (AFCI). GFCI outlets protect from electrocutions when there is an imbalance of energy and trips the circuit, and AFCI outlets keep electrical fires at bay by doing the same thing. These not only keep your family safer, but they can also keep things like your sump pump and garage doors from failing in the event of a flood or power outage.

Carbon Monoxide Detectors

Lastly, don’t overlook the need to install carbon monoxide detectors in your newly renovated basement. Carbon monoxide, or the silent killer, as it’s otherwise known, can often strike basements where hot-water heaters, and furnaces or boilers are commonly stored. Like smoke detectors, having them only on the ground level and upper floors of your home is not enough to help prevent a disaster. The gas would already be at dangerous levels inside your home if you relied on CO detectors on upper levels of your home.

Talk with your trusted Kansas City electrician to help you plan out the electrical aspect of your basement remodel before you start. Call Fusion Electric at 913-563-7975 today to get started.