Elevator mechanic and contractor licensing

A letter has been sent out to all building owners and managers informing them that elevator work may be performed only by licensed elevator mechanics and licensed elevator contractors, with some exceptions. This letter has generated numerous inquiries regarding who has been issued licenses. How do you find out who has a license?

L&I has received applications for 28 elevator contractors' licenses and 87 elevator mechanics' licenses as of Aug. 13. To date, 54 elevator mechanic licenses have been approved and issued, and none of the elevator contractor licenses have been approved. Why?

Beginning October 1, 2004, any elevator contractor or mechanic who does not have the appropriate license will not be able to perform work on elevators and other conveyances. L&I may deny a license application if the applicant owes any outstanding penalties. Any contractor who has outstanding penalties at the time their application is reviewed will not be issued a license and may not be allowed to continue working as an elevator contractor until the issue has been resolved. What about mechanics?

Please remember: September 30 is the last day an application can be submitted for an elevator license under the grandfathering clause. Since L&I will need some time to review each application, I encourage you to submit your application soon.

September 2004

September 30: Grandfathering period for licensing ends.

October 2004

October 20-21: Statewide elevator inspectors' meeting/training, L&I Tukwila office (not a public meeting, inspectors not available on these days).

Location: Tukwila L&I Office

November 2004

November 16: Advisory Committee meeting, 9-11 a.m.

Location: Tukwila L&I Office

November 16: Industry Meeting immediately following the Advisory Committee meeting, 11 a.m. - Noon

Location: Tukwila L&I Office

Inspection look-up feature now on the web

In March 2003, representatives from elevator companies asked for an online system that would allow them to look up the inspection results of their customers’ elevators. We now offer this feature on our web site.

Go to Elevators.LNI.wa.gov and select “Look up elevator inspections.” Use this handy search tool to look up the inspection history for an elevator, escalator or other conveyances in Washington state -- except for some conveyances located in Spokane and Seattle. You can search by conveyance number, building name or city. (The search feature by street address is not being offered at this time because no standardization was applied to the address format when the addresses were originally entered, thus making it difficult to search by this feature.)

The search results screen will appear indicating the conveyance number, the building name, the address of the building, the city where it is located, the status of the conveyance, the inspection date and the initials of the inspector who performed the inspection. Select the appropriate conveyance number in the “conveyance #” column to view the details of that inspection.
A screen indicating the inspection date, the number of corrections and the violation code will appear. Click on the numbers in the violation column to view a description of the violation.

This system was developed to meet the needs of the elevator companies, but we chose to make this available to all our customers. If you are not an elevator company representative and choose to use this system, please keep in mind that this it is still being developed. In the future, we hope to indicate which of the violations have been corrected, along with other information the general public might find useful.

Q. Are keys required to be on-site?

Yes. For both new and existing elevators, keys to the machine room and keys that are necessary to operate the elevator must be located in a locked key retainer box in the elevator lobby, or located by machine room doors at no more than six feet above the floor, provided access to the key box doesn't require passage through locked doors. The key retainer box must be:

•  Readily accessible to authorized personnel;

•  Clearly labeled "Elevator";

•  Securely mounted, and;

•  Equipped with a one-inch cylinder cam lock key #39504.

Further:

•  Keys for access to elevator machine rooms and for operating elevator equipment must be tagged and kept in the key box;

•  The key box must contain all keys necessary for inspections of the elevator, and;

•  Mechanical hoistway access devices must be kept in the key box or machine room.

For existing elevators, L&I may approve existing retainer boxes provided:

•  They are readily accessible to authorized personnel;

•  They are clearly labeled "elevator," and;

•  The lock is either a one-inch cylinder cam lock key #39504 or a combination lock. The combination for the lock must be on record with L&I.

These rules do not apply to residential elevators.

August 2004
Edition 13

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