Interesting and somewhat timely observation.
Elevators are not 'off-the-shelf' items. We own a third floor flat in an apartment building- one of 71 apartments. A couple of months ago, we got notice of a meeting of owners to 'discuss an important matter' with the management company we hire to oversee our buildings' (there are two) maintenance.
It seems that our elevators- one in each building- are failing. They have semi-frequently failed- stopping sometimes between floors- and the servicing company is based some distance away. I have been stuck in the elevator in our building for the better part of an hour waiting to be 'rescued'.
The building was built in 2008, and the elevators are custom made in Germany by a well-known (you've ALL ridden in elevators from this company). The parts that fail are custom machined parts. We have had to have replacements machined to fit. No one knows how long these parts will last. We are faced with a $3500 (for each apartment) to replace both elevators. It will take 2-3 months to complete the construction from when they start. Meanwhile, we have our fingers crossed that they keep running. There are handicapped residents that will have to relocate from whenever the elevator fails until new ones can be constructed in the elevator shafts.
Those who live in ground floor units- and the able-bodied have to pay, just like the elevator-dependent residents. That's how Special Assessments work.
Jim
I, too, have been and am living in a condo building built in 1989. Back 15 years or so ago, my elevator stopped, opened its doors, and the elevator's floor was about 4 to 5 feet higher than the opening. I tried closing the door to no avail as the elevator was unresponsive to any button pushing.
So I decided to sit on the elevator floor, my legs dangling over the opening, and aggressively push off, making sure to keep my weight forward so that I didn't stumble and fall back into the shaft, which is what I successfully did. Immediately after that, I of course let the security guard know who, in turn, informed the Board members.
Our 19 floor building has two elevators, both of which had become troublesome. Perhaps because my experience was the "last straw" on deciding yes or no, a decision was made to replace both elevators. But each elevator took only about two weeks to replace and everyone working on it worked regular 9 to 5 hours. And, apparently, from my conversation with one of the several elevator techs who were eating lunch in the building community room one day, it wasn't so much assembling the "box" on the lowest level that was so time consuming, but replacing the 1989 rooftop "spaghetti" electrical wiring/tubing with a new control panel box that was the big project.
So I'm not sure why an elevator in a three story building would take half of January and the entire month of February. But, if that's the best they can do even though they're a professional lodging facility that desperately needs their elevator, so be it. I'm similarly not sure why it's going to take 2-3 months in your building. But at least the Whale Pointe at Depot Bay management could be hyper-focused on addressing everyone's resulting problems, as I would hope your building management will be.
By the way, a few weeks after my jump, I saw on the TV news the following while on business in New York City:
A 5-year-old boy plunged 10 stories to his death yesterday when he tried to jump out of a stalled, chronically malfunctioning elevator in his city-operated Brooklyn building but fell into the shaft…
nypost.com
I understood exactly what had happened. While I was sitting with my legs dangling, I kept over and over warning myself to make sure my body weight was forward when I landed. But this was a 5 year old kid. He just thought he could casually jump down onto a solid floor. Nightmarish.
