An elevator is the main element of the entrance infrastructure of an apartment building. Residents of apartments use the elevator many times every day to go up to the desired floor and down to the exit from the entrance.
For those residents whose apartments are located above the 5th floor, it is impossible to imagine life without an elevator. Walking to the 9th or 12th floor is very difficult even for a young and physically healthy person.
Passenger and freight elevators, experiencing enormous daily loads, quickly wear out, break down, and sometimes require complete replacement. Replacing an elevator in an apartment building is not a cheap pleasure.
We’ll tell you in our article what to do if the elevator urgently needs to be replaced, but the residents don’t have the amount of money needed for this.
What types of elevator repairs exist?
Replacing an elevator is a last resort measure, which in our country is used most often when the elevator is already completely faulty, cannot be repaired, or has fallen into the shaft. Typically, problems in elevator operation are solved through various types of routine or major repairs.
An elevator is a lifting mechanism that requires compliance with certain operating rules. The elevator belongs to the common property of the apartment building. The management company must maintain the lifting mechanism.
The most commonly used elevator repair methods are:
- Technical inspection . According to the schedule created by the management company, the elevator is regularly checked for serviceability and safety of its operation. The lighting, operation of the buttons, and the lifting mechanism are checked.
- Emergency maintenance and emergency troubleshooting . Such repairs usually occur when a person gets stuck in an elevator and needs to be rescued urgently.
- Maintenance . The need for it is usually identified at the time of technical inspection. These are minor damages that can be repaired in a matter of hours. For example, one of the vandals tore out a button in the elevator or cut off the power to the lighting.
- Scheduled and unscheduled overhaul of the elevator . Residents of an apartment building make monthly contributions to the fund for capital repairs of the house. If the elevator malfunctions, the management company must replace it at the expense of these funds.
Replacement of elevator equipment usually occurs at the expense of the management company . Residents of the house constantly pay not only for major repairs of the house, but also for the maintenance and servicing of the elevator.
Over several years, a significant amount accumulates. And replacing an elevator occurs extremely rarely in houses. Elevators have a long service life.
What are the norms?
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To ensure the normal and safe use of elevators, it is necessary to regularly comply with standards, which include the technical requirements and standards developed by the Customs Union. We are talking about the “Safety of Elevators” and the standards “On the Safety of Machinery and Equipment”.
It is important to ensure that elevator equipment meets the technical requirements and characteristics of the facility. For this purpose, regular inspections of the facility are carried out.
The standards prescribe the organization of emergency maintenance and technical inspection of elevators.
Life time
According to current regulations, the service life of a passenger elevator located in an apartment building should not exceed 25 years. Once the specified period comes to an end, further operation of the facility is prohibited. The management company or homeowners association must organize a check of the operability of the elevator units.
Maintenance
A mandatory procedure for every lifting mechanism, regardless of its purpose, is maintenance. This rule also applies to elevators. Considering that elevator equipment is used to transport citizens, increased demands are placed on it.
Elevator maintenance should be carried out by elevator owners and specialized elevator companies and expert organizations.
Elevator owners must provide:
- careful handling of the lifting mechanism and all its parts;
- maintenance and inspection of the facility according to schedule;
- timely response to calls from passengers stuck in the elevator;
- starting a stopped elevator;
- carrying out all emergency restoration work;
- cleaning the machine room, the roof of the facility's cabin, restoring the floor covering.
Expert elevator organizations must carry out technical diagnostics of elevators. Experts conduct surveys, for example, regarding elevator safety, checking design papers, etc.
Maintenance acts as periodic inspections, restoration in case of breakdowns, routine repair work, etc.
Regulatory regulation of elevator replacement
Replacing an elevator and repairing it are regulated by civil and housing legislation. According to Art. 36 of the RF Housing Code, an elevator is considered common property of an apartment building.
According to Art. 39 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation, the owners of the property in the building where the elevator is operated are responsible for the condition of the elevator . But if the homeowners have entered into an agreement for elevator maintenance with the management company, then the responsibility for maintaining the elevator is transferred to the shoulders of the management company’s employees.
According to Art. 154 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation, the costs of replacing the elevator are included in the receipt for payment for housing and communal services . In this case, it does not matter whether the residential or non-residential premises use an elevator, and on which floor the apartment owners live.
The rules for operating elevators are separately prescribed by the Technical Regulations of the Customs Union 011/2011 “Safety of Elevators”.
In addition, in 2021, the operation of elevators is carried out on the basis of the norms of Government Decree No. 743.
Elevator service life
Many residents do not know what the statutory deadlines for replacing elevators in residential buildings are. They do not know when to sound the alarm to replace the elevator in order to avoid emergencies.
An elevator is a dangerous mechanism that, if used incorrectly, can harm the health and lives of people using it.
If the cable on which the elevator moves breaks, the elevator will collapse into the shaft. If there are any people inside the cabin at this moment, they are in serious danger.
The passport of each elevator must reflect its maximum service life of the facility.
According to Art. 4 of the Technical Regulations, if the elevator passport does not indicate a special period for its trouble-free use, it is considered that the elevator can be operated for a maximum of 25 years.
The inspection of the lift will have to be carried out by a company that has special accreditation. Based on the results of each inspection, a report is drawn up, which specifies the future fate of the elevator: its repair, further use or replacement.
The examination carried out must be recorded in the lifting machine’s passport.
Many apartment buildings have two elevators: passenger and freight . This was done so that in the event of a breakdown, residents could use the second elevator option. And citizens who wanted to transport heavy objects: building materials, equipment, etc., did not use passenger elevators for these purposes.
Carrying a weight in an elevator that exceeds the established values leads to frequent breakdowns and increased wear.
What is the difference between replacement and upgrade
Monitoring compliance with the requirements of the Technical Regulations is one of the main tasks of the Federal Service for Environmental, Technological and Nuclear Supervision (Rostechnadzor).
Based on the results of inspections of elevators in terms of compliance with the requirements of the Technical Regulations, Rostechnadzor turned to the Government of the Russian Federation with proposals to improve the safety of elevator operation. Specialists of the supervisory authority, when checking elevator equipment, identified facts of substitution of concepts. In the apartment building, under the guise of replacing elevators, only their modernization was carried out, which required lower costs. At the same time, retaining some parts of the old elevator reduced its safety level.
According to the Rostechnadzor website, the Government of the Russian Federation held a meeting on this issue, the results of which are reflected in the letter of the Ministry of Construction dated January 29, 2018 No. 2695-NS/06.
The document clearly defines the term “modernization” and its differences from “replacement”. According to letter No. 2695-NS/06, regardless of the terminology included in the design documentation, the elevator is considered modernized if at least one old element remains after the repair.
How to replace an elevator in an apartment building?
When there is a need to replace lifting equipment, the question of how to do it is decided. There are several options for making a replacement:
- On one's own . This is an extreme case in which all other options do not apply. Residents will have to pay for the installation costs themselves. This, by the way, is a lot of money. Some companies provide installments for 3 months or six months.
- Replacement of elevators under the overhaul program . This is a federal program that can be used by residents of multi-apartment residential buildings. In this case, about 90% of the costs are borne by the state, the rest is collected by the apartment owners. To become a participant in the program, you need to provide a set of certain documentation to a special commission. At the same time, the elevator will be checked for serviceability and the validity of its replacement.
- Replacement of elevators according to the regional program . Lifting equipment is replaced at the expense of the budget. It is carried out only in regions that are participants in such a program.
To replace an elevator in a building, you need to obtain the consent of at least two thirds of the homeowners. To do this, first a meeting of homeowners is organized on important issues, including replacing the elevator. All consents and refusals are recorded in the minutes of the meeting.
Under the Accelerated Elevator Replacement Program, the installation of more than 15,000 new elevators in various regions of the country was completed in 2021 . And every year the authorities create more and more new conditions for servicing the country’s citizens with new elevators and satisfying their requests on these issues.
How is an elevator replaced after a major overhaul?
If repairs are carried out at the expense of capital repair funds, which are paid monthly by apartment owners, then a special mechanism for replacing lifting equipment is in effect.
This happens as follows:
- 6 months before the planned work to replace the elevator, the management company is obliged to notify all residents of the building;
- The owners express their opinions, agree with the planned date or propose their own deadline for completing the work;
- Upon receipt of consent, the management company begins work on time.
Before carrying out work, a technological examination is carried out . Based on the examination, a schedule of repair work is drawn up. After the elevator replacement is completed, documentation documenting the result is drawn up, commissioning work is carried out and the elevator is put into operation.
To become a participant in a regional or federal program for replacing an elevator, you need to collect the following documentation: a technical passport of the house, a document confirming the method of managing an apartment building, an inspection report of the elevator describing its technical condition.
In addition, you will need to obtain permission from the authorized body to replace the elevator, draw up a work plan and financial estimate.
Deadlines for completion of work
The period during which residents of an apartment building will receive a new, working elevator depends on many factors. First of all, this is influenced by the number of floors of the house itself.
For residents of high floors, the lack of an elevator creates enormous problems and difficulties. They are the ones who are interested in quickly debugging new equipment.
However, even residents of the first and second floors will have their own interest in solving this problem. They, despite constant disagreements and disputes, also pay for the maintenance of the elevator, even though they don’t ride it.
Typically, in a nine-story building, replacing an elevator takes about a month, in a twelve-story building - 35 days, in a seventeen-story building - 45 days.
The process lasts from one to two and a half months. How an old elevator is replaced with a new one
Almost all Belarusians living in high-rise buildings use the elevator every day. But they probably don’t think about how exactly it works. What makes it go up and down? And how does he even appear at the entrance? We answer these questions together with Mogilevliftmash OJSC.
The dismantling of the old and installation of new elevators proceed in parallel and usually last from one to two and a half months. Near a house in the capital, where equipment is currently being replaced, we meet a team of workers. And we are surprised at its modest composition: there are only two specialists.
“Indeed, the elevator is usually installed by a team of installers - two people,” explains the director of the trade and service department, Anatoly Kachina. — The mines are small, the conditions there are very cramped, so more workers simply cannot fit on the cabin or scaffolding. In addition, due to safety precautions, it is impossible to work simultaneously on different levels - for example, on the first and eighth floors at once. Sparks may fall from above, or a tool or part may fall.
Anatoly notes that only specially trained workers can install the elevator. But not ordinary builders.
“These are either electromechanics of the fifth and higher category, or installers of electric lifts who have undergone training, internship, testing of knowledge on labor protection, and have certificates of permission to work,” he explains. - They must be over 18 years of age and medically fit. On site, these employees are trained in the specific type of work and safety precautions. The organization that carries out the installation must have the appropriate license.
In addition to the installers, other specialists are also working on the installation of the elevator. They appear on the site when the work of the previous team is completed.
Cost of replacing an elevator in a 9-story building
To make it clear to residents of an apartment building that receipts for payment for major repairs must be paid on time, we will consider in detail the cost of replacing the elevator at their own expense by apartment owners.
If citizens do not participate in any way in maintaining their elevator or do not pay for major repairs, the authorized bodies and the management company will not be willing to pay for the replacement of the elevator in their building. Then you will have to pay for this very expensive service yourself.
Each installation company sets its own prices for replacing elevators, but on average these figures can be expressed this way. If the elevator is planned to be replaced in a 9-story building, then the price for one floor will be about 50 thousand rubles.
It is easy to calculate that for 9 floors this amount will turn into 450 thousand rubles. The price also depends on the elevator manufacturer. Domestic lifting mechanisms are slightly cheaper than foreign ones. This price applies exclusively to passenger elevators.
A small freight elevator per floor will cost 60 thousand rubles when installing domestic equipment . These are the simplest cars, not equipped with mirrors, handles and other modifications. Prettier and more comfortable elevators will cost about 1 million rubles.
Of course, it will be very difficult to raise that kind of money on your own. Few residents would agree to pay such a large sum to replace an elevator. Therefore, it is best to try to participate in federal and regional programs for replacing elevator equipment.
The elevator in an apartment building is used every day by residents, resulting in natural wear and tear.
An elevator can pose a particular danger to humans, so its operation is carried out under the control of authorized bodies represented by management companies or special institutions, such as Moslift.
To replace an elevator in an apartment building for free, you need to become a participant in a regional or federal program and prove that the elevator is faulty and poses a real threat to the safety of those operating it.
When to report a breakdown
In addition to cases when the elevator does not arrive when called, you need to submit an application to check the serviceability of elevator equipment in the following cases:
- if the elevator makes strange sharp sounds when moving;
- in the absence of lighting in the cabin;
- if the floor level of the cabin when stopped does not coincide with the floor level of the floor;
- when elevator doors jam;
- with regular short elevator stops between floors.
All of the above signs may indicate the presence of hidden faults in the elevator equipment.
Prompt elimination of such problems will help avoid accidents.
Who pays for replacement under the unscheduled overhaul program?
If the replacement of lifting equipment is carried out during an unscheduled overhaul, the costs must be paid by the management organizations. In this case, funds are allocated from the funds provided for major repairs.
To install new equipment under the overhaul program, a decision of the general meeting is required. Voting can be secret, in-person or mixed. Residents who own at least 66% of the total area of the house must vote for unscheduled installation. Based on the minutes of the general meeting, the administration of the management company is obliged to carry out unscheduled major repairs by replacing the lift.
Types and timing of repair work
During operation, the following measures are taken to maintain the operation of elevators:
Technical inspection
Visual assessment and instrumental diagnostics of all elements, checking the operation of automation, cabin lighting and other components. When problems are identified, a plan is drawn up to eliminate defects or replace equipment. Conducted by licensed staff. Paid from the funds of the management company (MC).
Maintenance
Planned elimination of minor current problems identified during the technical inspection. It is carried out when replacement of the elevator is not required and malfunctions do not affect the operation of critical components. Can be performed without restrictions on the use of a lift. The work time does not exceed several hours. Carried out immediately after the technical inspection.
Emergency service
Emergency repair of minor breakdowns caused by various failures, flooding, fire or other emergencies. Performed by licensed specialists at the expense of the management company.
