by Shaun Leary | Jun 29, 2018 | Blog
Riding a public elevator is a common, everyday occurrence for millions of people around the country. By necessity, elevators are relatively small spaces. That makes your manners really important. But too many people make the same five elevator etiquette mistakes. The next time you step on an elevator, make sure you avoid doing these five things.
5. Taking the Elevator Up Less Than 3 Flights
This is — perhaps — the most common elevator mores on the list. If you’re only going up three flights or less, just take the stairs. Unless you have a serious medical condition that prevents you from climbing a couple flights of stairs, avoid the temptationg to just hop on the elevator.
Skipping the elevator will get your heart pumping — but not too much — and it won’t annoy all the passengers in the elvator who are trying to get five, ten or maybe even 20 stories up.
4. Chatting Loudly On Your Cell Phone
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, “Okay, I might lose you. I just stopped on the elevator.”
Wrap up your conversation and hang up with cell phone before you step on the elevator and the doors close. It’s almost inevitable that your call is going to get dropped, and your endless streak of “Hello?” isn’t going to help you make friends with your fellow passengers.
It’s a short ride. Put your cell phone away and enjoy the elevator music.
3. Standing in the Way
Okay, okay. Everybody on the elevator gets it: you don’t want to lose your standing place near the door. But when people are trying to get around you, simply shuffling to the side usually isn’t enough. When you move to the side, you’ve probably just invaded the personal space of other passengers, and you’re still in the way. Stepping to the side is more of an empty gesture than a legitimate courtesy.
When you’re in a crowded elevator, the appropriate and polite thing to do is to step out of the cab and wait for everyone to get off. For extra credit, hold the door open and flash a genuine smile to the passengers exiting the cab.
2. Squeezing In
So you’ve waited in line and now the elevator doors open, but it’s totally full. What do you do? Squeeze yourself in, of course!
In squeezing yourself in, you’ve not only made yourself a social pariah but you’ve also made everyone else’s ride that much more uncomfortable. Just because the doors can close doesn’t mean you should force yourself in. Think of the people near the back of the elevator, the people you’ve just pushed up against the wall of the cab.
Even if you’re running late, if the elevator is filled to capacity, be polite and wait for the next elevator — or climb the stairs.
1. Ignore Everyone Else
We’re not suggesting that you try to have a long conversation with your fellow passengers, but we are suggesting that a quick “Hello” or “Good morning” can go a long way. Nobody likes to feel like they’re being ignored, and the situation on elevators is usually awkward anyway, so be polite and act like a normal human being. It’s not as tough as you’d think!
Even if you’re guilty of one or more of these elevator faux pas, it’s not too late to change your ways! The next time you hop on an elevator, be courteous and think of your fellow passengers. The elevator-riding world will thank you.
If you’re in the central Arizona area and you’re considering installing a new commercial or residential elevator or having your lift maintenance, contact Celtic Elevator.
by Shaun Leary | Jun 12, 2018 | Blog
Have you ever needed to move dishes, laundry, books or other heavy items up one or more flights of stairs? It can be a major inconvenience, and it can even be dangerous. That’s why so many people around the country are installing dumbwaiters.
Dumbwaiters are becoming much more common, and they’re making a lot of normal, everyday tasks easier.
But you might be asking, “What’s a dumbwaiter?” And, “Is a dumbwaiter right for my home?”
Here’s everything you need to know about dumbwaiters.
What’s a dumbwaiter?
First of all, what is a dumbwaiter? It’s a funny word but an incredibly practical tool for virtually any multistory home or business.
Put simply, a dumbwaiter is a small framed platform that carries items up and down, between the floors of buildings. Essentially, it’s a small freight elevator.
With a dumbwaiter installed, you can easily put things inside it — like a cupboard, essentially — and with just a push of a button, the things you’ve loaded into the dumbwaiter are smoothly transported up or down a shaft. When it stops on the next level, the door opens and its contents are removed before sending the dumbwaiter back to the previous floor.
What can you do with a dumbwaiter?
If you’ve ever seen a dumbwaiter before, it was probably in a restaurant or a library.
Restaurants use dumbwaiters to transfer heavy plates and other items from one level to another, usually to and from the dishwasher. In major libraries, dumbwaiters are extremely helpful for moving books from circulation desks to the stacks for reshelving.
In both situations — restaurants and libraries — dumbwaiters make difficult, laborious work simple, and they help employees avoid injuries.
Dumbwaiters also have uses in residential settings, too! Much like they work in businesses, residential dumbwaiters help people complete regular tasks that would normally require them to move heavy items up and down the stairs. In residences, dumbwaiters are often used as an upscale laundry chute, a grocery delivery service from the garage or a kitchen aide for delivering prepared food.
How do I install a dumbwaiter?
Dumbwaiters are a lot like residential elevators, but they’re much less complicated and take much less time to install. Obviously, the square footage needed for a dumbwaiter is significantly smaller than what’s needed for a standard residential elevator, so they can fit into your home relatively inconspicuously.
Modern dumbwaiters comply with American Society of Mechanical Engineers codes, so it’s important to work with a reputable company that has experience with installing freight lifts.
Many residential elevator companies also install dumbwaiters. A good elevator company can install a dumbwaiter to make it look like it has been in your home all along! Again, like residential elevators, modern dumbwaiters should be properly maintained on a regular basis. For more information about dumbwaiters and regular maintenance, contact your local elevator company.
For those in the central Arizona area, Celtic Elevator is an excellent resource for your home lift needs, including dumbwaiters, residential elevators as well as maintenance contracts. Contact Celtic Elevator for a free dumbwaiter estimate today!
by Shaun Leary | Jun 5, 2018 | Blog
For many of us, elevators are staple of our everyday lives. Whether we’re hopping on a lift and heading up to our office or using an elevator in a parking garage to move through the levels quickly, elevators of all kinds make our lives easier and more efficient.
But how do elevators actually work? Sure, you walk in, press a few buttons and wait for the doors to close, but what’s actually going on behind the scenes? Or — in this case — above and below you?
Some of us step on elevators every single day with only a vague understanding of how they work, and that makes any funny noises they make scary. The unknown is always scarier than what you understand, right?
Residential elevators aren’t nearly as complicated (or scary) as you’d imagine. Here’s how they work and how they’re maintained.
Residential Elevators are Just as Safe as Commercial Ones
When it comes to residential elevators, some people are even more suspicious of them than commercial elevators, but there’s really no reason to be.
Residential elevators work in much the same way as the elevators in your office building’s elevator bank, and they go through the same kind of maintenance and inspections that commercial elevators go through.
Roped Hydraulic Drive
Because most residences are fewer than four stories, they mostly use what’s known as a roped hydraulic drive to lift and lower the cab in the elevator shaft. With a roped hydraulic drive, there’s a smooth experience for the riders, all the way from the top to the bottom.
When you hop on a residential elevator and press a button, the roped hydraulic drive is using a basic pulley system, one end attached to the hydraulic jack; the other end is attached to the cab of the elevator.
The next time you get on a residential elevator and barely feel the cab moving, thank the roped hydraulic drive!
Maintenance Contracts for Residential Elevators
Just like everything you use on a day-to-day basis, when it comes to residential elevators — over time — things will break, parts will need to be replaced and adjustments will need to be made.
But that doesn’t make them unsafe. In fact, every residential elevator with a maintenance contract gets a total inspection at least once a year. Usually, maintenance inspections happen once every six months.
Maintenance inspections cover cleaning and lubrication of key components of residential elevators, including the rails, rollers, sills, wheels and guides, header or motor bearings and much more. Inspections usually cover inspections and adjustments of the hardware as well.
If you’re considering adding a residential elevator to your home, make sure you understand what kind of elevator you’re thinking about installing, how it functions and what kind of proper maintenance will need to be done to keep it operating properly.
If you’re in the central Arizona area, Celtic Elevator is the only name you need to remember in residential elevators. The experts at Celtic Elevator will walk you through the entire process of choosing an elevator style, installing it in your home and maintaining it over the years. Give them a call today for a free estimate on your new home elevator installation.
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