Buildings can be busy places. Maintaining things that tenants use every day is essential. It’s apparent when things used by tenants everyday are not being properly maintained like carpets, paint and doors, but how much thought is given to a building’s elevator?
Buildings and owners can take elevators for granted. More often than not, elevator repairs and preventative maintenance can fall by the wayside, especially given the potential cost of obsolete part replacement or retrofits. An elevator’s worth is best demonstrated when it is not working.
Most of the time, elevators are the only method of travel between floors for wheelchairs or large deliveries. An elevator that doesn’t work, effectively cuts off access to everything except the ground level and if your building has handicapped employees or patients who need to visit a doctor’s office on upper floors, elevators are suddenly the most important part of your building.
That being said, the obvious choice would be to keep elevator downtime to a minimum. Below are some steps WFL uses in the buildings we manage to help prevent avoidable and unnecessary breakdowns.
- Make sure you have an adequate maintenance contract with a reputable elevator vendor. The money spent is well worth it.
- Stay on top of your upgrades. Trying to squeeze a few more months out of your obsolete power unit is only asking for trouble.
- Keep the elevator thresholds clean. Dirt and items in the thresholds can damage your door and the repairs needed will not be covered by your maintenance contract.
- Get the best price for the job. Due to our buying power, WFL gets the best price available for parts and service which makes being proactive a lot easier to swallow.