Elevators are an important part of high rise construction. But how do they fit in the schedule and with other trades?

As soon as we have the elevator opening shaft ready, we can start to install elevator rails. The items for making shaft ready include:

• all floors must be complete and the dimensions must be per the drawings of the elevator manufacturer.
• adequate storage space and access to the elevator shaft must be present, in other words, the elevator subcontractor must have enought space to place his stuff, and have enough space to work
• three phase and one phase power supplies must be complete,
• lifting hooks must be in place,
• ventilation ducts must be ready.

It is likely that the elevator manufacturer / installer will install using methods that do not require scaffold. This is the standard now, which saves time, money and access space. After the main installation work of elevators are complete, the final signaling and interiors of the elevators will be completed when the overall building trades are close to completion.

Another things to write about here is the importance of elevators for construction schedule and how does it fit with other trades

Lets’s show this with an example. Let’s assume two different floors of a multistory building is being renovated.  One is ten times the size of the other, as the upper floors have much smaller area than lower floors.

The smaller floor at the upper level, had only one elevator available to it while the larger floor, at the lower level had three elevators available to it. The renovation work for both floors took approximately the same duration, although the lower level floor was ten times larger, and for both floors more or less the optimal crew size has been used at all times. This was mostly because the elevatot availability, which was very critical for the progress of construction as the crews constantly need to move and bring material and equipment in and out… This example clearly outlines the importance of having good access to the work area, in this case, by elevators.