Screwfix sell a doorhinge finger protector, as oft seen in McDonalds:
The description in the catalogue used to be (may still be for all I know, but not got a book to hand) something like: "Used in fast food, school and military establishments worldwide." I kid you not.
So we can give them guns but don't trust them with doors...
Hum, so Fireman "in a hurry" to get from the upstairs restroom to pump for a shout looses footing falls and breaks a bone or three. By comparison and speed of getting between floors poles are far quicker and safer IMHO. And yes I have used one.
I guess they have now spent loads of money shifting rest rooms to the same level as the pumps.
Design it to screw down into the ground, with a platform on top, so you have both a lift and stairs.
Colin Bignell
Would it? Space is 1 m square? Doesn't that only leave you 50 cm (tad over 18") tread width, rather narrow. I can't get my head around having a more useful tread and a none straight "column" up the middle.
Building reg spec stairs will allow that and I wouldn't be surprised if building regs mandate stairs as backup for the lift. ie it's not allowed to have only lift access between floors.
Feasable but have you tried putting a loft ladder down from above? Several places I work have such arrangements and TBH getting the ladder down can be a right PITA.
Needs am interlocked gate at the top to stop rapid decent down the hole when the lift is down.
As carefree youth in a shared house we woke up one morning to find a bus stop pole in the hall, someone recollected it was wobbling when we leant on it waiting for a non existent late bus so in the interests of public safety we had brought it home. Out of the ground it was surprisingly long and about the only place it could be placed was in the landing at the foot of the stairs, it proved surprisingly useful for quick descents from upstairs to down. Eventually the Landlord asked us if we could remove it before our tenancy ran out as he wanted to show prospective buyers around. Gave it to next door who was building a wooden climbing a frame/castle for his children suggesting it would be a good feature and he did a smashing job of incorporating it into structure which was in his front visible garden. The chap who was a Reformed Church minister was really proud until somebody remarked "That red pole looks just like the ones at the Bus stops." He wasn't best pleased .
G.Harman
Entirely depends on the design, they don't *have* to be.
One of the care homes we work at took the old lift machinery out and fitted a hydraulic device. All the equipment in the motor room at the top of the shaft was removed. The contractors floored the area previously occupied by the motor with 9mm MDF supported on a badly made and scanty frame of 2 x 1. Dust fell on this and after a while it looked, in the dim light, like a concrete floor. It was perfectly obviously that it could not support the weight of anyone up there to access the roof or maintain the TV equipment, so I complained, accompanying my email with damning photographs. An inspector was sent for. The lift contractors got a big kick up the arse (I saw the correspondence, which included the words 'unbelievable stupidity') and within 24 hours a proper floor with joists and floorboards had been installed.
Bill
Especially if you made it a hand-pumped hydraulic lift.
ours have a compressor driven by an elctric motor ;-(
On Saturday, May 24, 2014 4:32:48 PM UTC+1, charles wrote: Snip
Spiralift for theatres without budget restrictions ;-)
Very nice, but it's going to be mega-expensive. At least you can put a wine cellar down there whilst at it.
Ok, that's clever :-)
Dread to think the cost though...
That is both insanely clever and slightly disturbing...
Friends of ours bought a house and had the chimney breasts removed upstairs and downstairs. Before the work was complete they asked all their friends over for a house warming party.
It was me that noticed the strategically placed rugs upstairs...
/It was me that noticed the strategically placed rugs upstairs.../
Were you downstairs looking up at the time?
Jim K
In message , Graham. writes
At least you noticed them.
When I was a student and lived in Liverpool 2 friends and myself were "investigating" a long disused building.
It was quite dark inside and we were on the upstairs floor, 3rd maybe, when suddenly 2 of us heard a muffled scream, a few bangs and clatters, followed by silence. Our companion had vanished without trace. Eventually we found him huddled up in a cupboard on the ground floor.
It turned out that in a previous existence the building had a dumb waiter system that was designed to look like built in cupboards. When it was removed the new owners had simply put a thin board across the top and bottom of the shaft at each floor and fitted a few shelves, so to all intents and purposes it now just looked like a series of walk in cupboards, except that if you walked in the floor gave way!
Leicester Curve have some of those for their orchestra pit - first time I had seen them, and most ingenious.
Chris
most impressive, no visible fall arrester system but maybe one of those personel fall arrestor thingies could be used, where it allows the webbing to pay out at a certain speed, and brake it if it goes faster,
I believe commercial lifts use(d) a system where the pull on the lift is off set a little, and the back side is on runners, if the rope breaks the lift tilts forwards and jams it's self in the shaft to prevent it falling.
So thanks for the replies! Some quite intersting too :)
For various reasons, it's unlikely to happen (this year at least!), however just to fill in some more details:
The space is a big L shape in the corner of the room, so currently it's got a right turn half way up the stairs which makes it awkward to get appliances up there - currently a waashing machine and our backup cooker... Has had a freezer up there too. It's essentially what people might use a small side-of-house garage for when not storing a car - i.e. general storage/utility room with the odd appliance... (there is water/drainage, etc. up there too)
There is a door leading to a 5' drop to the alleyway outside. Inside the floor of the kitchen is about a foot lower then ground level outside. It's mainly built on stone/bedrock... We'd love a celler, but without some serious quarrying, it's not going to happen, so neither is a hydraulic pusher!
So the door is fine as an emergency exit, should the lift stop working, or for any other reason. There isn't a ladder/stairs to it, but for getting out, it wouldn't be an issue.
Looks like the current commercial ones have touch controls - ie. let go of the control and it stops. That's a safety thing. Also sensors to stop you geting an arm trapped, or guards at the side, etc.
And then I started to think - in my recent past I used to do a lot of scuba diving, and the better boats all now have diver lifts - usually a frame with a cage that you swim/stand in, then get hoisted up to the boat - using a geared DC motor fed off the boats 24v system (worm drive) I've seen steel cable and dual-webbing strops used to carry the cage which itself uses big nylon rollers in U channelling to keep it in-place. Obviously a diver lift is somewhat "agricultural" compared to something you'd use at home, but it does make it seem much more of something that might actually be achievable... All I need to do is sharpen up my welding skills :-)
See e.g.
Anyway, we'll see!
Cheers,
Gordon
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