Had a job in a 1920s building downtown where the governor weights were stuck in a brick shaft wall.

We were there for a full day trying to free them up. The old blueprints showed a small access panel, but it was covered over during a remodel. Ended up using a borescope camera (the kind plumbers use) to look down the side of the shaft. Found the issue: the original hemp rope guides had rotted and jammed the whole stack. Had to cut a new hole in the wall from the machine room. The super said, 'I haven't seen that part of the elevator since my dad ran this building.' Anyone run into a governor that's been sealed inside a wall before?

3 comments

3 Comments

richard5812mo ago

Our 1980s retrofit hid it too, like ryang65 said.

henry_palmer242mo ago

Yeah, that 1980s retrofit era was a real mess. I had a 1975 ranch where the original plaster walls had been covered with drywall, and they just buried the old fuse box behind it. Found it when I was drilling for a shelf bracket and hit something solid. The blueprints from that period are basically works of fiction. Cutting a new hole is usually the cleanest way to handle it, but I always keep a flashlight handy now just in case there's more surprises hiding in those walls.

ryang652mo ago

I mean, that's why I always check for old access panels before any demo work. The blueprints lie all the time after that many remodels. Cutting a new hole is usually the only fix when it's that buried.