Carbon Monoxide Alarm Sounding? Get Everyone Outside — Then Call for Help in Sutton Coldfield
Treat every CO alarm as real: move everyone into fresh air, do not re-enter until checked, call 0800 111 999 — and 999 if anyone has serious symptoms.
Booking fee plus hourly labour — the price is confirmed before any work starts.
What this costs
| Booked 14+ days ahead | £25 booking fee £85 per hour |
|---|---|
| Booked within 48 hours | £100 booking fee £65 per hour |
| Same-day call-out | £220 booking fee £45 per hour |
The booking fee secures the visit. Labour is then charged by the hour, so you only pay for the time the job actually takes.
Booking fee £25–£220
£25 + £85/hr booked 14+ days ahead, £100 + £65/hr inside 48 hours, £220 + £45/hr same day. Agreed before we arrive.
Covered under Boilers
Heating & Radiators › Boilers — one of 22 documented jobs in this section.
Same-day carbon monoxide alarm triggered
Urgent jobs can often be booked for today. Ask when you book and we will confirm the slot before you pay anything.
15 service areas
Birmingham, Coventry, Dorridge and 12 more across the West Midlands.
What to Do the Moment the Alarm Sounds
Follow these steps immediately — do not stop to investigate or silence the alarm first:
- Get everyone outside into fresh air — every person and pet, immediately. Open doors and windows on your way out if it is safe and quick to do so.
- Do not re-enter the property — not for phones, not for valuables, not to check the boiler — until it has been checked and you are advised it is safe.
- Call 999 if anyone has serious symptoms — dizziness, confusion, headache, nausea, breathlessness, collapsing or losing consciousness are medical emergencies. Say you suspect carbon monoxide poisoning and seek medical advice even for milder symptoms.
- Call the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999 about the suspected CO emergency from your appliance — the line is free and answered 24 hours a day.
- Do not use the boiler or any fuel-burning appliance again until a Gas Safe registered engineer has checked it and confirmed it is safe.
Treat every alarm activation as real. CO cannot be seen, tasted or smelled — there is no such thing as a faint smell of carbon monoxide — so the detector is the only sense that can warn you.
Why You Must Not Silence and Return
Dismissing an alarm as a nuisance is the most dangerous mistake in home heating. Alarms sound for genuine CO from faulty boilers, blocked flues and poorly venting appliances, and concentrations can build steadily rather than instantly. Symptoms of low-level exposure — headaches, tiredness, mild nausea — are easy to attribute to other causes, which is why CO is sometimes called the silent killer. If the alarm has sounded, the only safe assumption is that CO is present until professional testing proves otherwise. Ventilate, vacate, and let the emergency service measure what you cannot sense.
How CO Gets Into a Home
CO is produced when fuel burns incompletely. Around boilers it arises from blocked or damaged flues, burners that are not burning correctly, flues disconnected or corroded, inadequate ventilation to the boiler, and back-drafting where extraction fans or wind overcome the flue's draw. It can also come from other fuel-burning appliances — gas fires, cookers and even running a car in an attached garage. This is why the emergency service checks the whole situation rather than one appliance, and why the eventual repair must be done by a Gas Safe registered engineer rather than anyone without that registration.
What Maintenance Men's Role Is — and Is Not
We are not Gas Safe registered and never carry out gas work, so we do not test, adjust or repair the appliance or flue that produced the CO. Our role begins once the immediate emergency is handled:
- Recommending a trusted Gas Safe registered engineer — we work closely with engineers we trust, and can arrange the inspection and repair of the appliance and flue.
- Water-side and electrical follow-on — if the incident involved damage to heating pipework, controls or electrics, we can assess and repair those parts.
- Restoring the system — once the gas-side work is complete and the appliance is certified safe, we can repressurise, refill and recommission the water side so heating resumes promptly.
The boundary is absolute: anything on the gas side — burner, gas valve, flue, casing interiors — is for the Gas Safe engineer alone.
After the Property Is Declared Safe
Have the source identified properly, not just the alarm reset. A Gas Safe engineer should establish why CO was produced, repair it, and check the flue and ventilation. Fit or replace CO alarms as recommended — they have limited lifespans and need testing regularly. Do not restart the boiler until the engineer confirms it is safe, no matter how cold the house is. If anyone continues to feel unwell after the event, seek medical advice and mention the CO exposure specifically.
The Order of Calls to Make
Everyone outside first. Then 999 for any serious or worsening symptoms. Then 0800 111 999 for the suspected CO emergency. Only after all of that — once the property is safe — contact Maintenance Men for a recommendation to a trusted Gas Safe registered engineer and help with the water-side and electrical aftermath. Safety first, everything else after.
How the price works
We charge a booking fee to hold your slot, then an hourly rate for the work itself. The fee changes with how soon you need us; the hourly rate changes with the slot you choose. You approve the price before we start, so there is no surprise on the invoice.
Booked 14+ days ahead
£25 booking fee
then £85 per hour of labour
Best value. Book the slot now, pay the smallest booking fee.
Booked within 48 hours
£100 booking fee
then £65 per hour of labour
For jobs that can wait a day or two but not a fortnight.
Same-day call-out
£220 booking fee
then £45 per hour of labour
Urgent problems: standing water, no heat, no power, leaks.
Book the slot
Choose the window that suits you and pay the booking fee. That holds your place in the diary.
We diagnose on site
The engineer confirms the cause and tells you what the job involves and how long it should take.
You approve, we work
Nothing goes ahead until you agree the price. Labour is then charged per hour at your slot rate.
A carbon monoxide alarm sounding is an emergency until proven otherwise — CO is odourless, colourless and dangerous at low concentrations, so the alarm is often the only warning there will ever be. This page gives you the exact steps to take. Once everyone is safe and the property has been checked, Maintenance Men can recommend a trusted Gas Safe registered engineer to find and fix the source.
What our customers say about our heating & radiators service
5 out of 5 from 10 reviews
Fast, tidy and friendly
Booked the £220 booking-fee slot on Tuesday and got a message confirming the time the same morning. The cause was explained, the price agreed before any work started, and the job was done in about 46 minutes. Clean and tidy when they left.
Job: No Heating from Boiler
Turned up when they said
What I appreciated was being told what was actually wrong before anyone started. Sorted in under 46 minutes and the invoice matched the quote to the penny.
Job: Expansion Vessel Fault
Exactly what was quoted
I had put off sorting this for months because I expected a runaround. Quoted the booking fee plus hourly rate upfront, stuck to it, and actually found the underlying cause rather than just clearing the symptom. Worked neatly and hoovered up afterwards.
Job: Airlock in Hot Water System
Book Carbon Monoxide Alarm Triggered
Tell us what is happening and choose a slot. If you are not sure this is the right job, use the diagnosis panel — it narrows the problem down before you book.
- Booking fee confirmed up front
- Hourly labour, agreed before work starts
- Same-day slots for urgent problems
Questions people ask about carbon monoxide alarm triggered
Straight answers to the things customers ask most often before booking.
My CO alarm beeped once then stopped — is that an emergency?
Treat any alarm activation seriously, including brief ones — a short burst can still mean CO was present. Get everyone into fresh air, ventilate if safe, and call the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999 for advice. Also test the alarm itself and check its manual, because end-of-life warnings differ from alarm patterns — but never assume it was a false alarm without advice.
What are the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning?
Headache, dizziness, nausea, tiredness, confusion and breathlessness — and they often improve outdoors and return indoors, which is a telling pattern. If anyone has serious symptoms, call 999 immediately and say you suspect CO poisoning. Seek medical advice for milder symptoms too, and mention the exposure explicitly.
Can Maintenance Men fix the boiler that caused the CO?
No — the appliance, burner, gas valve and flue are gas-side, and we are not Gas Safe registered and never carry out gas work. What we do is recommend a trusted Gas Safe registered engineer we work closely with to inspect and repair it, and afterwards handle any water-side or electrical work and restore the heating system.
Does dealing with a CO emergency cost anything?
Calling 999 or the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999 costs nothing, and their attendance is free. Any follow-on work we carry out afterwards is priced with a booking fee paid when you book, an hourly labour rate depending on how soon you need us, and the full cost quoted and approved before work starts. The Gas Safe engineer's repair of the appliance is quoted by them directly.
How do I stop CO happening again?
Have the boiler and flue serviced and checked by a Gas Safe registered engineer regularly, keep ventilation openings clear, and fit working CO alarms in the recommended locations, testing them monthly and replacing them at the end of their rated life. Any appliance that has produced CO should be repaired and confirmed safe before it is used again.
Need carbon monoxide alarm triggered sorted in Sutton Coldfield?
Book a slot in the diary and pay only the booking fee up front. We confirm the rest before we start.