Elevator Phone Line Replacement in Savannah, GA

Savannah elevators sit in some unusual places: restored buildings in the Historic District, hotels along River Street and Bay Street, and hospital campuses south of downtown. They all share one weak point. Many of their emergency phones still depend on a copper phone line, and the copper is being retired. On the coast there is a second test too: storm season, when the power goes out and the phone in a stuck car has to work anyway.

Who inspects your elevator in Savannah

Savannah follows the same statewide rules as the rest of Georgia. The Office of Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner runs elevator inspections, and state law calls for each passenger elevator to be inspected once in every 12-month period, by state inspectors or private inspectors the Office has certified.

Savannah Fire still enforces the fire code in your building, including the fire alarm that brings elevators down to the lobby in a fire. The annual elevator inspection, where an emergency phone that cannot reach help becomes a problem, is the state program.

Sources: O.C.G.A. 8-2-102 (inspections); Georgia OCI: Elevators and Escalators; Ga. Rule 120-3-25 (adopts ASME A17.1-2019)

Historic District buildings: what needs review and what does not

The Savannah Historic District was named a National Historic Landmark District in 1966. Inside it, exterior changes you can see from a street or lane need a Certificate of Appropriateness through the Historic District Board of Review.

Replacing an elevator phone line is interior work. The dual-pathway device mounts in the elevator machine room and connects to the cab phone already in the car. No new copper is pulled through the building and nothing changes on the outside. The one case worth checking is a machine room with a weak cell signal that needs an outside antenna. If that comes up in the audit, we tell you before anything is installed, so you can clear it with the city first.

Sources: MPC: Building in Historic Savannah

Storm season and the emergency phone

Georgia uses ASME A17.1, 2019 edition, which requires the elevator emergency phone to keep working when building power fails. On the coast that is a real scenario, not a paperwork one. A copper line got its power from the phone company. A replacement line needs backup power in the building, so backup power is part of what we look at in the audit, and at install we confirm the cab phone reaches the 24/7 monitoring center.

A dual-pathway line also helps here. It connects over cellular and the building internet at the same time, so if a storm takes out the internet, the phone stays up on cellular.

Savannah buildings where this comes up

Historic District and riverfront hotels run their elevators for guests every hour of the day. SCAD has restored many older buildings in the district, and elevators retrofitted into old buildings may still run on copper. Hospital campuses such as Memorial Health University Medical Center and St. Joseph’s/Candler move patients and staff by elevator around the clock. Newer mid-rise apartments and offices outside the historic core are more likely to have internet-based elevator phones that need a backup path.

How we serve Savannah

Savannah audits and installs run as scheduled trips from our Atlanta office, about four hours away. We group several buildings into one trip when we can.

If you also own or manage buildings in Atlanta or Charleston, one audit can cover all of them.

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.

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.