Elevator is Finally Legal!

After what seemed an eternity, the Waupaca PacaLift elevator (winding drum type) is finally legal to use! Jim’s been able to get downstairs to his therapy room several times now although the length of his chair’s wheelbase is still presenting a challenge while we figure out how best to enter, position the chair so Jim can reach the buttons and avoid getting his toes caught in the auto-open/close accordian gates on the inside of the car.

The cab interior was custom stained to closely match the main floor maple hardwood flooring. The lacquered finish is perfectly satin-y to touch and the handrail is brushed stainless steel – the end result is a very rich-looking elevator cab!

We ultimately chose an interesting click-lock vinyl flooring for the cab because both the basement laminate and the main floor maple hardwood are 1/2″ thick and the cab floor could only handle 1/4″ to remain bump-free at the threshold. Serge, our carpenter, and his floor expert cousin figured out that they could use a 1/8″ thick underlayment (luan) beneath it and get precisely to the 1/8″ height we needed. And they did a beautiful job! For around $50 I was able to purchase one box of the 12″x3′ slate-look strips of 3-tile square strips and that completely did the original and will do a replacement floor in the future as well.

It was quite the process to get here:

• The construction manager may or may not have given the elevator company’s specs to the electrical sub-contractor.
• The electrical sub-contractor didn’t do things that the elevator company expected/had specified was their responsibility.
• An elevator-specific electrical inspection turned ugly when the inspector decided to look further than the usual inspection would have gone — don’t get me wrong… if he was finding problems related to electrical leading up to the elevator’s machine room, they needed to be fixed and I’m not sure that they would have been had he not been so nitpicky.
• Because the 1st inspection was so expanded, we failed miserably — 9 items needed to be addressed and the electrician incurred a nearly $200 trip charge for calling in an inspection when the system was ready to be reviewed.
• Arguments ensued between elevator company and electrical subcontractor over who was responsible for 4 of the 9 items on the failed inspection list. Ultimately, 3 went to the elevator company and 6 went to the electrician.
• Even after being assured that all the electrical fixes had been done and a new inspection set up, that same inspector found one item still lacking. Fortunately, he didn’t totally fail us again, nor did he apply another fine. He just failed the one item, approved the others and we had to get the electrician back to fix an item that they said they’d addressed but hadn’t.
• The electrician came at 8 a.m. Friday (10/14), left at 9 a.m. and a new electrical inspector came at 9:30 a.m. that same day. We were totally unaware that they were coming that day at all so it’s a very good thing the work had been taken care of early.
• The automatic swing door openers we bought to open/close the landing doors can’t engage with the current landing door electro-mechanical locks installed by the elevator company. Those are required by code although the specific type of lock is open to certain choices. The elevator company is researching what other appropriate lock mechanisms may let us use those openers — without them, Jim won’t be able to use the elevator independently because of his physical limitations and the size/positioning limitations of his wheelchair.

The actual elevator inspection happened last Wednesday, October 19 and took approximately 2 hours to prepare for. Adjustments were made to the physical stop of the car so that the floor was precisely even with the cab interior. A thousand pounds of barbells were loaded in after protecting the floor — this is a requirement of the inspection and proves that the system can handle the load it’s rated for. The machine room was organized and cleaned up. A last minute adjustment was required because the wrong accordian interior door opened at the basement level. And… We passed!

What’s next for us and our elevator?

Jim feels anxiety when using the elevator because he’s afraid to gouge the cab walls so I’m going to buy plexiglass panels and have the carpenter install them to protect the walls. Hopefully that will help the situation.

We need to work with the elevator company to figure out whether any commercially available landing door locks will work with the auto swing door operators so Jim can control all aspects of the elevator and gain some additional independence.

We need to change out the cab’s phone with one that has a setting for the ringer to be totally off. Currently the phone that came with the elevator rings whenever the house phone rings. The cavernous elevator makes the noise vibrate throughout the entire house and it actually can wake Jim up! Got to fix that!

Bottom line is that, because of this elevator, Jim’s going to be able to get his therapy program going again and he’s very excited to start going through the Lionel trains that he hasn’t been able to touch for the past 7 years. So while it apparently did absolutely nothing to boost the value of our new house, it was an investment worth making, at least for us!