Here at Sheridan Lifts, we understand the drill. Lifts are expensive, they’re a huge investment for any business but for many of those businesses they’re very much a critical need rather than a ‘nice to have’.
Our lift engineers fit very few brand-new lifts for clients who might want to use them ‘just in case’ – 99 times out of 100 a lift is an essential addition to a building and imperative to a successfully functioning company, business or institution.
This in essence is why lift maintenance is so crucial. Why would you take a risk with something so important?
Let us put it like this, whether you have a new or older lift, getting your lift serviced and maintained is as important as getting a personal health check, taxing and insuring your car or locking your house front door before you leave for the day. In fact, its WAY more important than any of those things, as your lift is responsible for the lives of others, who may or may not be entrusted in your care.
Lift industry regulations and guidelines are regularly altering in line with advice from governing bodies, meaning risk assessment is always at the forefront of our minds, and as such the need to ensure safety as well as energy efficiency from your lift is always our number one priority.
Lift maintenance is crucial for any premises with a lift
We’re a member of the LEIA and sat down with their Managing Director Nick Mellor. He reinforces that:
“There are statutory legal requirements for owners to have equipment maintained such as lifts, lifting platforms, stairlifts, escalators and moving walks if they are: work equipment under Provision of Work Equipment Regulations (PUWER); lifts used for fire safety; equipment under the control of an employer or self-employed person under the Health and Safety at Work Act (HASAWA). This list is not exhaustive and there may be other regulations applying to specialist equipment which might have further requirements.
He goes on to say:
“However, even if a piece of equipment does not fall under one of these, it is clear that equipment degrades with time, even if not used or used lightly, and so owners should have their equipment regularly maintained. Further guidance is available from the LEIA website.
Recently we were called out to assess why a lift was failing in Manchester. When our engineers arrived on the scene, they were presented with this lift shaft below. Thankfully there were no injuries but as this now famous picture below illustrates, it is most definitely advisable to have your lift maintained to avoid any potentially serious and life threatening injuries from occurring.
Here is the image, which garnered hundreds of impressions on our Linked In page with dozens of comments and shares!
Can you see what the problem might be?