Life at Tower Hamlets Homes gets a lift from an AlimakHek Temporary Lift

Lift and Hoist specialist AlimakHek has recently installed two temporary lifts for Tower Hamlets Homes as part of a recent internal lift refurbishment project at Ansell House which avoided the need to re-accommodate any of the 250 residents during the 12 week refurbishment programme.

Ansell House is a six-storey building with four lifts, two in the middle and one at each end. Although the two central lifts are linked and have common access, the end lifts are totally independent with no access to the others, which meant that when they are out of action, residents are forced to use the stairs to access their flats. Some residents, who have been at Ansell House since it was built in the late 1950s, are frail or have mobility issues. Asking them to use the stairs during the refurbishment programme was not a possibility.

Jamie Carswell, Director of Investment for Tower Hamlets Homes explained how, with a little lateral thinking, the housing provider found the perfect solution for residents. “Throughout the refurbishment, residents’ wellbeing was paramount. We knew that we couldn’t install an alternative lift because the site and subterranean infrastructure precluded such major construction and also the additional construction and ongoing maintenance costs would be prohibitively expensive. So together with AlimakHek, we came up with the option of installing two temporary lifts to the outside of the building which would then service all six floors of the block.“

The AlimakHek SE630T Temporary Passenger/Goods Lift is developed from experience gained from thousands of permanent lift installations; the lift car runs on a structural mast and driven up and down by a Rack and Pinion so no shaft or machine room is required.