There can be a multitude of reasons why a lift may stop operating, from power cuts to vandalism, but if you’re unfortunate to be stuck in a lift when it breaks down, do you know what to do, and importantly what not to do?

The Sun reports that the Secretary for Levelling Up, Michael Gove was recently stuck in a lift at the BBC on his way to an interview with Radio 4’s Today programme on Monday 10 January, and after being stuck for half an hour told the show: “You successfully levelled me up, so I’m delighted to be here.”

Nick Mellow, the director of the Lift and Escalator Industry Association was invited to the radio show and interviewed by Naga Munchetty, who said that being stuck in a lift for half an hour wasn’t that bad, as some people can end up being stuck for hours.

He advised people, should they find themselves in a similar situation, stressing that most new lifts will have an integrated communications system to allow people to call for help.

Mellor said that there are two key things to remember when finding yourself trapped. Firstly, use the alarm system to alert people that you are there, and then wait for an engineer to come and release you.

However, he stressed that the most dangerous thing to do was to try and free yourself. He said the lift is safe, just not working, and that, unlike in action movies, it is not going to fall. If passengers attempt to open the lift doors themselves, there is a risk of falling down the lift shaft.

“What you need to do is wait for the lift engineer to get there and move it to the floor level,” he said.

Staying in the lift car rules out other risks so it's always better to stay in the lift, try not to panic, or attempt to get out. Try to remain calm and trust the professionals to fix the problem.

If you’re looking for lift refurbishment companies, talk to us today.

Now more than ever it is important to maintain high standards of hygiene at the workplace. With the coronavirus still causing high infection rates and hospitalisations, cleanliness in public spaces has never been as essential for the health and wellbeing of people.

While there are many still working from home, businesses have opened up again, and even if not full time, employees are heading back to the office. However, according to a recent study, 78 per cent of respondents said they had concerns about the work environment waiting for them, as reported by HR News.

The lifts at your workplace will be used by everyone, from employees and customers to delivery personnel and clients, which makes it imperative that your lifts are clean, hygienic, and safe to use. We have a look at three tips for enhanced hygiene in your lifts.

Install an air purifier

Lifts are small and enclosed spaces, and passengers will all be sharing the same air, breathing it in and out. An air purifier, easily installed on the wall or ceiling, will remove harmful particles and bacteria from the air, helping to reduce the transmission of COVID-19, as well as winter colds and flu bugs.

Invest in touchless buttons

A relatively new innovation, touchless lift buttons will transform the cleanliness of your lift. Motion-activated buttons work with infrared sensors, meaning that passengers do not have to physically touch buttons, thus vastly reducing the risk of transmission of the virus.

Add a UV lamp

UV lamps, which can be easily installed on the ceiling or wall, have a 99 per cent sterilisation efficiency, making them the perfect addition to any lift. They rely on motion sensors and create no ozone damage, making them a fantastic investment if you want to improve hygiene levels in your lift.

If you’re looking for lift refurbishment companies, get in touch today.

Approximately half of all lifts in the UK are more than 30 years old, and for lift and building owners and operators, it poses the question of what to do with old lifts, whether to replace or to refurbish.

The question of ensuring lifts are fit for purpose has recently been of relevance, with the recent inquiry to the tragic Grenfell Tower disaster, with a former lift engineer for Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation stating that none of the lifts in the building met required firefighting standards, according to Inside Housing.

What does lift refurbishment actually mean?

When something is restored to an ‘as new’ condition we can say it has been refurbished. Worn out equipment is simply replaced like for like and nothing more. If lift components and lift equipment are replaced in this way, this is not considered an upgrade.

The replaced components will function as the originals were designed to do, and could include replacement or refurbishment of bearings, lift motors, doors, or lift interiors.

With any such changes to a lift, it will still perform as it was designed to do, and performance and reliability will be improved, but it does mean there will be no change in the level of safety.

There are many good reasons to go further than simply replacing like-for-like, for example, to improve the lift ride and floor levelling, or to improve on lift energy consumption.

Replacing an old lift motor with a similar or equivalent model would be a refurbishment, but replacing it with a modern variable speed motor would constitute an upgrade.

It is important for lift owners and operators to consider all the options rather than simply replacing components with like-for-like.

If you’re looking for lift refurbishment companies, talk to us today and we can advise on all the options available to you.

We are all much more aware of what we touch in our everyday lives since COVID-19. We were all told to avoid touching our faces with unwashed hands, and many of us will think twice before grabbing a handrail in a public place or press buttons in an elevator.

Many companies, hoping to reopen offices and workplaces soon, will be taking all this into account as they make changes and implement touchless access control measures to buildings, such as the use of RFID cards like those used in contactless payments, or key fobs that only permit access to certain floors.

However, these measures cannot be implemented in busy public areas, such as shopping centres, railways stations, and airports. Now companies are seeking the next generation of controls to accommodate the need for touchless technology.

A Singaporean design studio, Stuck Design has been working on a concept where lift passengers won’t have to touch a button to ‘press’ it. The studio’s Kinetic Touchless technology mimics the movement of the finger and recreates the tactile sensation of pushing a button. 

It works by detecting motion and doesn’t need direct contact, and the designers say that the technology can recognise other gestures too, swiping, pushing or pulling, and the technology means the buttons will sink inwards or move outwards, following the gesture.

While there is touchless technology that will acknowledge your selection with a light or a sound, this concept may appear overkill, however, the studio said: “By going beyond the expected feedback of light and sound, Kinetic Touchless provides a surprisingly delightful and yet newly familiar way to interact with contactless technology.”

The concept is yet still in the prototype phase, but touchless technology will be used more and more post-pandemic, so get ready for Star Trek-style technology coming to lifts soon!

If you’re looking for lift Solutions, get in touch today.

Ickenham station in northwest London, on the Piccadilly and Metropolitan lines, has become the 84th station on the tube to have step-free access added to the station, including two new sets of lifts on each platform.

Rail Technology Magazine reports that as well as the new lifts, there is improved signage guiding customers to step-free access from street level to the station platforms, and manual boarding ramps will continue to be available to assist passengers to get from rain to platform, and tactile paving covering the length of both platforms.

The station now has two new lifts and improved signage giving customers step-free access from the street to the station platforms. Alongside the upgrades, manual boarding ramps will still be available to assist customers to get from train to platform, as well as existing tactile paving covering the full length of both platforms.

A new street-level walkway has been built above the platforms, that leads to a new overbridge and there two sets of wheelchair-accessible passenger lifts to each platform. A separate plan to rebuild the ticket hall to include lift shafts had been ruled out due to the expense for a relatively quiet station - the 10th quietest hub station on the TfL network.

The current car park for the station is at rail level, which requires customers to walk up a staircase to get the ticket office, or via the narrow pavement on the road bridge, which is less than ideal for passengers who require the lifts, so a new, smaller car park has been included next to the ticket hall, with three wheelchair-accessible car parking spaces. 

The new car park has yet to open, but a condition of the planning approval requires it to be completed within a year of the lifts being added to the station.

If you’re looking for lift solutions, get in touch today.

A number of railways stations have undertaken extensive passenger lift refurbishments in the past year, citing provision for a predicted increase in passenger numbers when HS2 is completed, as well as an ‘Access for All’ upgrade scheme, which was launched in 2006 to improve accessibility at railway stations nationwide.

Place North West has reported on a £400,000 refurbishment project taking place at Macclesfield Station, that aims to make step-free access to the station platforms more reliable. It, unfortunately, means that both passenger lifts will be out of action at the same time, but there will be staff on hand at the station to help those who require it.

Tom Wadsworth, the senior asset engineer for buildings at Network Rail, said: “This investment into the lifts at Macclesfield station is much-needed and will greatly improve reliability for passengers.”

He explained that Macclesfield Station will be part of the HS2 high-speed rail network to Crewe, and there was a need to improve station facilities, in particular to refurbish the passenger lifts to grant rail users an enhanced experience at the station.

However, Macclesfield is not the only station that has undertaken passenger lift refurbishments in the past year, with a £750,000 project to refurbish the lifts at Derby Railway Station, and an upgrade to lifts at Tamworth Station.

New passenger lifts have also been installed at Leeds Rail Station as part of a £32 million refurbishment, and new lifts have been installed at Stechford station in Birmingham, as part of the £3.9m ‘Access for All’ upgrade scheme.

Network Rail have also said that the lift upgrades and refurbishments have been necessary to help accommodate the public’s need to maintain social distancing in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, and the lift refurbishments will allow for a faster service, with more room, and an over all better experience.

If you’re looking for lift refurbishment companies, get in touch today.