You've Just Upgraded Your Elevator — So Why Doesn't It Ride More Smoothly?
May 24, 2012 — "If your equipment is really old, replacing your cables and other mechanical stuff can costs $20,000 to $30,000," observes explains Ken Breglio, president of the maintenance firm BP Elevator, "and yet the elevator will run the same, because fixing safety issues doesn't enhance the ride. Why? Because the controls are old."
And co-op / condo boards and residents don't always get that. Compounding that communication issue is the fact that the city's revised elevator regulations don't have grandfather provision for existing elevators — elevators that complied perfectly well with the law at the time they were installed.
These mandated upgrades are technically repair or maintenance issues, notes Gerard J. Picaso, president of Gerard J.Picaso Inc., a management firm. That means, for instance, that when an inspector says some newly mandated component has to be installed in what's been a perfectly safe, working elevator, the building's elevator-company contract doesn't cover that improvement.
What Contracts Don't Cover
"You have a contract with an elevator company for maintenance that says basically that the elevator company, at its own cost, will fix the elevator and keep it running," says veteran building manager Gerard J. Picaso, president of Gerard J.Picaso Inc., "except for the [specifically listed] things like doors and buttons that can be vandalized or broken accidentally."
And so whereas condo and co-op boards and their managers generally used to know in advance when things like cable would have to be replaced and start a budgeting item, says Picaso, "Now, you really can't do that with these new rules, especially since there's nothing grandfathered in. All of a sudden, you get a list of things you have to do, and it's expensive, and the boards of directors say, 'How come we're spending money for an elevator-maintenance contract when we have to do all this work and pay for it separately?"
Safe at Home
No one, at least, disputes the need to have elevators be safe. "A lot of these new city regulations they're enforcing are very good," says management executive Michael Wolfe, president of Midboro Management, citing in particular the requirement for a safety bracket on horizontally sliding doors. The new code requires two guides on every door panel plus a third safety bracket.
In fact, no one disputes inspectors calling even for more prosaic fixes, such as covering bare light bulbs or installing a ladder in the elevator pit at the bottom of the shaft. "Our freight elevator hasn't had a ladder in the pit for 80 years and now all of a sudden we've got 30 days to put a ladder in the pit," says Grant Varga, a longtime board member at the 13-story prewar co-op 12 West 67th Street, near Central Park — who nonetheless concedes a ladder could help someone escape if they'd fallen in.
Overall, believes Breglio, co-ops and condos that can afford to "should really look into upgrading the elevator, because if the [mandated upgrade] work is extensive, you may be throwing $10,000 to $20,000 away on a Band Aid if two years later you have to [renovate] anyway."
For more, join our Archive >>