Question:
Does anyone have any tips for installing smoke detectors in the shop? My shop is in the garage, with the sleeping areas directly over. I'm concerned that a standard smoke detector in the garage would not be loud enough to wake us upstairs. I know that some detectors can be wired together so that all their alarms will sound if any of them detect smoke. Has anyone done this?

We also have a home burglar alarm, the kind that phones a monitoring service if there is a breakin. Is it possible to have a smoke detector wired into this system in such a way that the alarm service can tell the difference between a fire and a break-in?

How about fire extinguishers? I have a couple in the shop that I could grab if something starts while I'm there, but they'd be pretty useless if I was outside the shop when it was burning. I need to mount another one outside the shop somewhere.

In general, I'd be interested in hearing about any sort of planning anyone has done in this area. The possibility of a fire in the shop is nearly as terrifying as the possibility of a serious injury. In addition to the obvious trauma of having a fire, I have a large bass marimba that I've been working on for more than a year that would really be heartbreaking to lose.

Has anyone actually had a fire in their shop? How did it start? How far did it spread before it was put out (or are you sleeping in a cardboard box now?). How much damage was there? Did your homeowner's insurance cover your loss adequately?

Answer: Most smoke dectors are not built to handle the dusty shop. You might check with your alarm installer. My shop is tied into the alarm system in our home. The unit also has fire alarms tied to it. So if there is a fire and we are away, it will call the monitor service. They can tell if the alarm is a fire or intrusion. In my shop I have what they call heat to rise dectors. They work by monitoring the air tempature. If the tempature goes up fast as it would in a fire, they will go off. Some of the things that go on is a shop will set off a regular fire alarm. These things wont affect the heat to rise dectors.