Elevator Maintenance Wanted – A Dream Deferred

We have been seeing a lot of opportunities at buildings that are paying for monthly maintenance visits, or “full maintenance”, that have completely neglected elevators. It is so important that elevator companies give mechanics time to do maintenance. Elevator mechanics take the time they get to do maintenance and building owners pay a reasonable amount of money to allow the elevator company to properly maintain the equipment. It is the elevator industry's “Holy Trinity” and it requires all three parties; elevator companies, elevator mechanics and building owners to be on the same page to have a safe and responsible level of service. If you are paying $99.00 a month for elevator maintenance, you probably are not getting anything but a good price.

All of these photos are from buildings that had monthly maintenance contracts.

This took years to look like it does

This took years to look like it does

This took years to look like it does

It is a disservice to our industry and other elevator professionals out there to have elevators that look like this if we are going to the buildings on a monthly basis.

What Colley does – We do a few things differently than some of our competitors; OEMS and independents. The biggest thing we do is to watch our route numbers. It’s not always perfect but we cannot expect an elevator mechanic to complete maintenance[which includes cleaning] if they don’t have enough hours in the month to get through their routes. Our management and support team actually goes out to buildings for route audits and spot checks. When we do this, not only do we see how we are doing, we also see what upgrades the building may be interested in or would benefit from. This also allows us to be familiar with more buildings so when owners or management calls, we can say “hey, I was just at that building”. We also go to buildings of the elevator mechanic's choice that they have issues with or would like to see improvements completed. We incentivize car top and pit cleaning, provide maintenance helpers and buy a whole lot of Simple Green. 

The equation is pretty simple and always a work in progress because no one is stoked about cleaning pits, car tops, machine rooms, divider beams, door closers, back of sills, etc but it is what we signed up for when joining the elevator industry. Cleaning is the lowest hanging fruit out there for us as elevator personnel to complete. Everyone knows how to and can clean something each visit to a building. Let's keep our industry great, we can do better.

If you have any questions or would like additional information feel free to contact me at CraigZ@colleyelevator.com or 630-766-7230 ext. 107.

Also check us out on Instagram @Colleyelevator see what we have been up to.

Highland Park, IL Shooting Victims Fund

We hear about tragedies and talk about how unfortunate they are.  When the tragedies come closer to home, our ears ring a little louder.  The Highland Park 4^th of July parade shooting is in our back yard.  A Colley employee was in the parade with his wife and kids.  I was at someone’s house who went to school with one of the victims and was going to their funeral this weekend.  It is real. Most of us will think about this for a short bit then move on.  Some people will forever be changed from going to a 4^th of July parade. 

Colley challenged our employees to donate money to a victim(s) and the management team would match the donations.  We had great participation and collectively have donated $2,000.00. Additionally, we will be channeling our Colley Cares 3rd quarter donation to the Victims First fund.

We can’t bring anyone back or repair the damage this  reckless act caused mentally and physically, but we hope the few dollars everyone can donate will add up and make lives easier moving forward from this horrible event.  If you are able, give a few dollars to a great cause.

If you have any questions or would like additional information feel free to contact me at CraigZ@colleyelevator.com or 630-766-7230 ext. 107. 

Also check us out on Instagram @Colleyelevator see what we have been up to.

Elevator Picture Hall of Fame – Volume 2 – 2022

We get to review a lot of pictures when we go to survey elevators for sales, shut downs or engineering.  Here are a few of the more unique ones we pulled out of our Elevator Picture Hall of Fame – Volume 2 – 2022.  It is like the disgrace of Edinburgh’s, you cannot stop looking and thinking, “what were they thinking”?

The Butcher of Dover – This was an elevator we used to take care of for a less than great owner.  The owner had a hard time paying their bills and has been featured in this blog for not heating their machine room correctly.  We parted ways many years ago.  Like a bad penny, this building popped back up on the radar with a new owner. 

There are a few more unique things that a company who they hired did to this elevator, but the controller is one that made it to the Hall of Fame.  This elevator is being modernized and on its way to working great!

The Butcher of Dover strikes again - While I was writing the description of the Dover Butcher, I remembered, the controller wasn’t the only wild thing that happened at the building featured. 

Neglected Pit – This isn’t very exciting, we see lots of neglected pits on sales calls.  As an industry, we can do better.  This owner was paying for monthly service. 

Stoned - This elevator is frequently unmotivated, gaining weight, growing its hair out, listens to jam bands and craves late night burritos after watching Bill and Ted II.

Rusty Disco – This owner was having problems with their lift for many years.  They are removing their whole lift soon and replacing it with a ramp.

Snake pipe – You ever look at an old picture of something and said “what where they thinking”? 

Hey 4^th year figure this out! – We have a great mechanic who likes to test all the apprentices to see if they can trace wires so he sets them up to troubleshoot this before he puts everything back on terminals nice and neat.  No… That wasn’t this story at all.

If you have any questions or would like additional information feel free to contact me at CraigZ@colleyelevator.com or 630-766-7230 ext. 107.

Also check us out on Instagram @Colleyelevator see what we have been up to.