What documents should be in an elevator machine room

With the new codes coming out that require different items to be in the elevator machine room there seems to be some general confusion of what qualifies as maintenance records, maintenance control plans, testing records, etc.  The City of Chicago will be requiring these items shortly and the State of Illinois jurisdiction areas have required these for some time.

Every elevator machine room requires the following.

1.    Maintenance records

2.    Oil logs

3.    Maintenance control plan

4.    Testing records

5.    Code data tag

Maintenance records - The amount of maintenance records required varies depending if you are in Illinois or in Chicago’s jurisdiction.   If your maintenance provider does electronic maintenance records you as a building owner must print these out and put them in the machine room.  It is the building owners responsibility to have these in the elevator room.  Typically the elevator contractor will provide the records, however, if your contractor does not, you will need to acquire them and put them in the room.

Oil logs – There needs to be documentation of any oil added to the elevator system.  Our oil log is located in the maintenance record packet which you see pictured above. 

Maintenance control plan[MCP] – A document indicating how the elevator is maintained needs to be located in the elevator machine room.  Some companies are using stickers with phone numbers, some companies are using CDs, some companies are using universal maintenance information.  In my opinion a binder with escalator maintenance information in it for a traction elevator does not qualify as a correct MCP.

Testing records – CAT 1 & CAT 5 records need to be located in the elevator room.

Code data tag – This is a tag that indicates when the elevator was installed and what modifications have been made to the elevator system.

If your machine room does not have these documents, get your contractor to provide them.  There are plenty of reasons for the elevator to fail inspection, don’t let the elevator fail for some of the easy items that should be provided.

If you have any questions or would like information from Colley Elevator you can go to www.colleyelevator.com, email Craigz@colleyelevator.com or call 630-766-7230.