Just watched a guy try to fix a stuck door with a crowbar in a 20-story building

Last Tuesday I was working on a 15 year old Otis in a downtown Philadelphia office tower, and this new guy from another company shows up to help. Before I could say anything, he wedges a crowbar into the door gap to force it open... bent the metal track so bad the car wouldn't move for 2 hours. Has anyone else run into DIY types who think elevator parts are like house doors?

2 comments

2 Comments

mary_wells1mo ago

That Otis model from 2008 has those thin door tracks that bend if you look at them wrong. I saw a security guard once use a butter knife on an elevator door in a mall because he thought it would be faster than calling maintenance. Took us 4 hours to replace the whole door hanger assembly because he bent the guide shoe bracket past the point of repair. The worst part is these people always think they're helping until the cab gets stuck between floors.

hannahh531mo ago

Honestly I used to be one of those people who thought "how bad could it really be" when it came to messing with elevator doors. Then I saw a janitor at my old building try to pry the doors open with a bent coat hanger because someone got their bag stuck. It took three technicians and a full day to get the doors tracking straight again, and the whole time the cab was just sitting there making that awful grinding noise. That experience totally changed my mind, I don't even look at those tracks funny now.