Ideal Lifts

FAQs

Ideal Lifts Limited FAQs

Yes, our lifts and frame system are installed as a complete solution designed to suit Modular, Timber and Light Gauge Steel sometimes referred to as LGS/LSF.

Our Frame System requires a shaft prior to installation, the shaft can be the same material as the rest of the MMC building.

The Frame System removes the need for time consuming and costly ‘one-off’ bespoke lift shafts. The Frame System delivers repeatable design = efficient processes.

No, all of our lifts can also be installed in traditional masonry lift shafts, including ultra compact, space saving designs.

Generally speaking no, a traditional masonry or bespoke lift shaft is not required in an MMC building and increases time and cost.

Ideal Lifts have for many years engaged and worked closely with MMC designers and manufactures gaining an understanding in their processes and developed building specific solutions.

Yes, please visit IL3 for further information.

Yes, please visit Breeam Compliance for further information.

No, we don’t provide domestic through-floor or stair lifts.
Please visit Lift Models for further information.

We mostly provide 8-Person and 13-Person lifts but can accommodate from 4-P to 33-P, see more information about our lift shaft size requirements here.

Ideal Lifts Service Limited FAQs

Your lift should be regularly serviced to ensure it remains safe and reliable to use.

Lift owners or duty holders have a specific responsibility to ensure the safety of others, while using the lift. In particular they are responsible for the safe use of the lift, which includes its safe operation, condition (maintenance) and compliance with relevant statutory requirements.

They may be required to explain to the authorities how these responsibilities have been discharged. This is usually by way of providing evidence of a regular servicing and maintenance regime together with a record of periodic thorough examinations by a competent person (see LOLER examinations).

This depends on a number of factors including how old it is, how much it’s used and what condition it is in. On average, six service visits per annum is adequate for most lifts.

Our maintenance contracts start from £150 + VAT and can be customised to suit your own requirements.

We offer a number of different levels of contract cover depending on your own requirements.

Contact one of our team today to discuss your options. More information can be found here.

Ideal Lifts Service have local engineers to provide full coverage in the following areas:
• Bedfordshire • Berkshire • Birmingham • Bristol & Bath • Buckinghamshire • Cambridgeshire • Cornwall • Derbyshire • Devon • Dorset • East Sussex • Essex • Gloucestershire • Hampshire • Herefordshire • Hertfordshire • Kent • Leicestershire • London • Northamptonshire • Nottinghamshire • Oxfordshire • Rutland • Somerset • South Wales • Suffolk • Surrey • Warwickshire • West Midlands • West Sussex • Wiltshire • Worcestershire

We work on all types of lifts including passenger, goods and platform, but don’t offer our services on dock levelers, sky-jacks, tail-lifts, cherry-pickers or 2/4 post vehicle lifts.

You can contact us by phone or email to book a service. Alternatively we can provide dates in advance so you know exactly when your local lift engineer will be attending throughout the year.

Our contract customers get priority access to our 24-hour emergency callout service using our normal telephone number 01837 659 734.

Although our callout response times can’t be guaranteed due to traffic and weather conditions etc, we do monitor this and are typically able to achieve and exceed the industry standard of same day response for non-urgent callouts (almost all within 4 hours), and within 1 hour response for emergency trap-ins in normal working hours. Using our advanced CRM system we can provide you with an ETA when you contact us, and regular updates on when our engineer will be attending.

Your lift is fitted with an audible alarm and may also have a two-way communication system such as an autodialler which trapped passengers can use to contact us for an emergency response. As long as an open protocol autodialler is fitted, we will re-program this free of charge during our first service visit.

If your lift doesn’t have an autodialler or you have concerns over how the Openreach digital roll-out will affect you, we’re happy to provide advice and offer solutions to ensure trapped passengers can continue to seek help.

This depends what time of day you ask us to attend. But we never charge for travelling time or mileage, simply an attendance fee plus the time spent on site.

Call us on 01837 659 734 and if you’re a contract customer we will dispatch an engineer to you without delay.

When calling, please provide as much information as possible as to what’s happened to help our engineer get to the root cause of the issue.

Examples of this useful information is:

  • What was the lift doing when it faulted (what is it doing / not doing)?
  • Where is the lift now / what floor is it on if known?
  • Are the doors open or closed?
  • Were there any signs of abnormal operation before it stopped working (strange noises/ movement)?
  • When did the fault occur?

Most importantly, for your own safety and that of others, never try to reset or work on the lift yourself.

These are individual tests and examinations which can be called for by a competent person where concerns regarding the condition or operation of specific lift systems arise. Test packages are provided which include thorough testing of lift systems to verify their operation, condition and safety.

These tests go above and beyond what is included in a normal routine service visit.

The purpose of the tests is to support the thorough examination in order to establish the equipment’s suitability for continued safe use. Such supplementary tests, which should be called for by a Competent Person, will need to be undertaken and documented in order to enable subsequent thorough examinations to be completed.

Failure to complete the supplementary tests may preclude the completion of the subsequent thorough examination, requiring the lift to be taken out of service and not used.

Almost certainly yes, it is a very rare occurrence to find a lift is beyond repair and needs replacing.

Contact us today to arrange for a survey to establish repair and upgrade options.

We can offer to mothball your lift to make it safe and help prevent the ingress of dirt and potential misuse over time.

We would make you aware in the first instance and offer our quotations for repair or replacement of the part.

Our engineers carry a variety of stock items on their vans for use on site. If an item is not held in stock, we are also supported by a range of UK based suppliers who are able to provide fast delivery of parts.

Some of our customers opt to pre-authorise us to fit replacement spare parts from our van stock, when found necessary, up to a specific value whilst we’re already on site. This can save time attempting to seek authorisation for the works whilst our engineer is on site and reduces the chance of us having to leave the lift switched off and returning at additional cost once authorisation has been received. £100 would typically cover the cost of replacement batteries, lamps, belts and door shoes as necessary. £250 would typically cover the cost of a replacement UPS device, essential for the emergency release of trapped passengers.

Absolutely. We have an established supplier network ensuring readily available spares for all makes of lift, including:

Aritco, Axel, Cibes, Carlos Silva, Dalby, Doppler, Electra-Vitoria, Elex, Express Evans, Foulds, Gartec, H&C, IGV, Kone, IMEM, Kleemann, Metalift, Motala, Macpuarsa, Nami, Orona, Otis, NTD, Pickerings, Pollock, Raloe, Schindler, Stannah, Terry, Thyssen, Vimec & Wessex.

We can carry out a safety, compliance and condition survey on your lift to identify what if anything needs to be upgraded or replaced in order to comply with the modern standards.

On completion of this full and thorough survey we would summarise, prioritise and provide quotations for any items found and issue a report to you accordingly. This provides you with a full overview of the lifts condition in terms of safety and reliability and enables you to prioritise and budget future work rather than having the potential surprise of a new set of quotations following each service visit.

This would also form a bench mark test for advanced levels of contract cover, and often gets the bottom of any repeat callout issues you may have experienced.

Contact us now to find out more about these surveys.

  • BS 7255:2012 – Code of practice for safe working on lifts
  • BS EN 81-80:2019 – Rules for the improvement of safety of existing passenger and goods passenger lifts
  • BS EN 81 82
  • Equality Act 2010

Although there is no legal requirement to carry out modernisation works to BS EN 81-80, once brought to the owner’s attention, ignorance is not a defence. It is the duty of the owner to provide safe equipment.

It is a very rare occurrence to find a lift is beyond repair and needs replacing. We can almost always offer a refurbishment package to bring your lift up to modern standard, reusing existing systems such as the guides, machine and car sling where appropriate.

Absolutely, we can offer a range of options from a basic car reline through to a full high-end finish make-over including new lighting, call station, indicators etc.

Please see our case studies for some examples of work we have carried out in the past.

All of our work is covered by a full labour and materials warranty for twelve months, and this can be extended for up to five years to include regular maintenance visits.

A remote monitoring device is an electronic system connected to a lift which monitors and reports on its performance and functionality, allowing us to advise you of and respond to any faults or issues detected.

Yes, there is a remote monitoring device to suit every type of lift. Functionality of each device will depend on individual circumstances. In general, the newer the control system on your lift, the more functionality we’ll be able to monitor.

Not at all, but by doing so you could be saving hundreds of pounds by reducing the need for callouts, especially as we can diagnose and resolve some faults remotely without needing to send an engineer to site.

This varies by type, but typically we’ll be able to monitor floor calls, direction, stoppages, door operation, temperature and vibration. More advanced systems allow us to monitor every aspect of the lift including fault codes, and perform resets and put place floor calls, much like having an engineer on site at all times.

Data is transmitted from the device over the GSM networks via a SIM card we provide. This is sent to our secure servers which we log-in to in order to monitor your lift.

We provide commercial-IoT grade, non-steered, roaming SIM cards which always maintain the best available signal. We can also install hi-gain antennas to boost available signal. In extreme cases other connectivity options are available.

Yes, all data is processed in line with our Data Protection policy and only authorised persons are able to access your lifts data. We never share your lifts data with anyone else.

This depends on the exact type of unit fitted. Typically it is fitted on the car top or in or near the control panel. It’s never visible or accessible to lift users.

We are able to monitor your lift in real-time, advising of any issues or faults and in some cases resolve these without needing to send an engineer to site, saving you time and money. It also enables us to monitor lift usage, allowing us to advise you on service levels and ensuring the lift gets the engineering visits it needs.

Yes, every lift has the ability to have a remote monitoring device fitted to it. If your lift has had a newer control system fitted since original installation then this likely means we’ll be able to monitor more functions through it compared to the original system. If your control system hasn’t been upgraded then this is something we can discuss and provide you with.

Authorised and trained personnel in our offices only. Our on-call engineers also have access, so if you have an issue in an evening or at a weekend, we’ll still be able to review the fault before attending, or perhaps resolve it remotely without needing to attend at all.

This depends on the exact equipment currently in place. Please contact us to arrange a free survey, after which we’ll be able to advise you on the best remote monitoring device to suit your lift.

This again depends on the exact type of equipment fitted, but it can be from as little as £10 per month. We have various options and some of our contracts are inclusive of ongoing remote monitoring charges.

Certain advanced systems can be self-monitored yes, please contact us to discuss your requirements.

Yes, we offer a vandal-resistant 360-degree digital camera system with two-way audio and live-view remote monitoring.

Unfortunately not, this service is available exclusively to our contract customers. If you would like a quotation for lift maintenance please contact our Contracts team.

We can arrange to survey your lift and advise on which remote monitoring device is best for you. Please contact us for more information.

We were established in 2006 and our team represents many years of combined experience.

We’re based at offices in Okehampton, Devon but cover a wide area of the UK with a network of directly employed engineers.

If you are a lift owner or someone responsible for the safe operation of a lift used at work, such as a facilities manager or supervisor, you are a ‘dutyholder’ under LOLER (Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998). This means that you have a legal responsibility to ensure that the lift is thoroughly examined and that it is safe to use.

LOLER examinations have to be carried out every six months on a passenger carrying lift, and every twelve months on a goods lift. These examinations must also be carried out completely independently of the servicing we provide.

Please see HSE guidance document here for more information.

Closed protocol equipment installed by some lift companies often requires specialist and expensive tooling to operate, making it more difficult than it should be for independent companies to work on and limiting your choices.

We operate an open-protocol policy meaning all of the equipment we fit can be worked on by any competent lift engineer.