Atlanta runs from Downtown and Midtown office towers to Buckhead condominium high-rises and the mid-rise apartments along the BeltLine. Every passenger elevator in those buildings has an emergency phone, and many of those phones still dial out over an analog copper line that the phone companies are retiring. Here is who checks that phone in Atlanta, which code it is held to, and how we replace the line.
Who inspects your elevator in Atlanta
Elevator safety in Georgia is a state program, not a city one. Georgia law requires every passenger elevator to be inspected once in each 12-month period. Those inspections run through the Office of Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner, using its own inspectors and private inspectors the Office has certified. Certified inspectors must hold the QEI (Qualified Elevator Inspector) credential. After a passing inspection, the operating permit is posted in the car, or a sign in the car or lobby tells riders where it is.
Atlanta Fire Rescue Department still has a role. Its fire marshal enforces the fire code in your building, including the fire alarm that sends elevators to the lobby during a fire. But the yearly elevator inspection belongs to the state program, and an emergency phone that cannot reach help is the kind of problem that shows up there.
Sources: O.C.G.A. 8-2-102 (inspections); Georgia OCI: Elevators and Escalators; Ga. Rule 120-3-25
The elevator code Georgia uses
Georgia adopted ASME A17.1, 2019 edition, the national elevator safety code, by state rule. It requires a two-way emergency phone in the car that reaches someone who can send help, and that phone has to keep working when building power goes out. A copper line used to cover the connection side of that. Once the copper is gone, the replacement has to.
The 2019 edition also added a two-way text display in the car for passengers who are deaf, hard of hearing, or unable to speak. That applies to new elevators. If your Atlanta building is modernizing an elevator, ask your elevator contractor whether the project brings the car under it, and plan the phone line at the same time.
Sources: Ga. Rule 120-3-25-.02 (adopts ASME A17.1-2019)
Atlanta buildings where this comes up
Older Downtown and Midtown office towers are the most likely to still have copper running to the machine room. Hotel towers near the Georgia World Congress Center and in Buckhead run their elevators around the clock. Hospital campuses such as Grady Memorial, Emory University Hospital Midtown, and Piedmont Atlanta move patients and staff on elevators all day. Buckhead condominium towers usually have a board that answers for the elevators. Newer apartment buildings along the BeltLine may have internet-based elevator phones, which go silent when the building internet drops.
Each of these needs the same thing: an emergency phone that connects every time, even with the power or internet out.
Elevator phone replacement across Metro Atlanta: Decatur, Brookhaven, Dunwoody, Sandy Springs, Alpharetta
The rules above are the same in every one of these cities: the state inspects each passenger elevator once a year, and the city or county fire department enforces the fire code. What changes from one city to the next is the kind of building and which fire department covers it. All of them are served directly from our Clairmont Road office.
Decatur
Decatur Square and the blocks around it are full of newer mixed-use buildings with shops below apartments and offices. Emory Decatur Hospital, known as DeKalb Medical until it joined Emory Healthcare in 2018, anchors a cluster of medical offices. Decatur runs its own fire department, separate from DeKalb County. Decatur is a short drive from our office.
Brookhaven
Brookhaven became a city in December 2012, and much of its elevator stock is newer multifamily and mixed-use along Peachtree Road. DeKalb County Fire Rescue covers the city. Brookhaven sits right next to our 30329 office.
Dunwoody and Perimeter Center
Perimeter Center, which spans Dunwoody, Sandy Springs, and part of Brookhaven, holds more than 29 million square feet of office space. Its high-rise towers run several elevator banks each, alongside hotels and newer apartment towers near the Dunwoody and Sandy Springs MARTA stations. DeKalb County Fire Rescue covers Dunwoody. For a tower with many cabs, one audit and one cutover plan keeps the whole bank on the same schedule.
Sandy Springs and Pill Hill
Sandy Springs is home to Pill Hill, the hospital cluster near GA-400 and I-285 with Northside Hospital, Emory Saint Joseph’s Hospital, and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite, surrounded by medical office buildings. Hospital elevators carry patients and staff all day, so a working emergency phone matters even more there. Sandy Springs has its own city fire department.
Alpharetta
Alpharetta sits at the north end of the GA-400 corridor, with corporate office buildings, the Avalon mixed-use district, and newer mid-rise apartments. Its police, fire, and 911 services are combined in one Department of Public Safety. Alpharetta is the farthest of these from our office, so visits there are scheduled ahead.
How we serve Atlanta
Atlanta is home for Justin Hall Consulting. Our office is at 3006 Clairmont Road, Suite 1070, in the 30329 ZIP code, and audits and installs across the metro are scheduled straight from there.
If you manage buildings in Atlanta and on the coast, one audit can cover the whole list. See our Savannah and Charleston pages for how those markets differ.
How the line replacement works
We do not replace your elevator phone. The cab phone, hall fixtures, and hoistway wiring stay as they are. A dual-pathway device installs in the machine room, connects to the existing cab phone, and reaches the 24/7 monitoring center two ways at once, cellular and building internet, with automatic failover.
How a dual-pathway elevator line works
The replacement device installs in the elevator machine room and connects to the existing cab phone. It reaches the monitoring center two independent ways at once, with automatic failover. If one path drops, the other carries the call.
On cost: a copper elevator line runs roughly $80 to $280 per line per month, and a dual-pathway replacement starts under $30 per month. Every engagement starts with a free audit of each cab phone and line, then a fixed-cost cutover plan.