Explain to me how you can move a sofa down an elevator shaft because sofa won't fit in elevator box.

[Anonymous]

The freight elevator broke when we were moving out of an apartment. The movers couldn't get it into the regular elevator. I have been without a sofa for a few weeks. The manager indicates the elevator company will move it somehow, but the freight elevator isn't fixed. What are they going to do? Throw it down the shaft? It needs to go down four floors. What if they damage it? I have indicated I don't want anyone moving it except me, and that can only be done when the freight is fixed. I'll have very little recourse if they damage it, and I guarantee they will.

[Anonymous]

Stairs

[Anonymous]

Window?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stairs

Impossible and why would the elevator company need to be involved? The manager said the elevator company would move it. The stairs are too narrow. The building is very old.

[Anonymous]

Elevator goes to top floor of shaft and is locked out and disabled.

Doors are open to expose shaft at floor with sofa.

Sofa is packaged up and secured in a harness.

Sofa is placed in shaft and lowered with block and tackle gear to floor where it will be removed from building.

Profit.

[Anonymous]

Well, OP, grand pianos are lifted by cranes in and out of windows.

We can't tell you why you were told the elevator company would take care of it - it does not seem like their job. Do they know the length of your sofa? Are they planning on inserting in diagonally? Or will they pay for a window lift?

Clarify with the people involved. We don't know.

Also, stuff is damaged all the time during moves. You can minimize the damage by hiring white-glove movers, but you cannot prevent all damage.

[Anonymous]

It is possible to load it on top of the elevator cab. Seems crazy, but I was involved in a construction project where a custom piece of wood paneling was too tall for the inside of the cab so the contractor and building engineer opened the doors while the elevator was at the floor below to load and unload the panel.

[Anonymous]

Throw it out a window?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, OP, grand pianos are lifted by cranes in and out of windows.

We can't tell you why you were told the elevator company would take care of it - it does not seem like their job. Do they know the length of your sofa? Are they planning on inserting it diagonally? Or will they pay for a window lift?

Clarify with the people involved. We don't know.

Also, stuff is damaged all the time during moves. You can minimize the damage by hiring white-glove movers, but you cannot prevent all damage.

The landlord is doing all this because they want the sofa out ASAP. I can't hire movers if they don't have a working freight elevator. I have already hired movers, but since the freight was broken, they couldn't move it. This is 100 percent the landlord's fault. They are causing me a headache and I will need to spend money on movers AGAIN.

[Anonymous]

Ross can give you tips.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is possible to load it on top of the elevator cab. Seems crazy, but I was involved in a construction project where a custom piece of wood paneling was too tall for the inside of the cab so the contractor and building engineer opened the doors while the elevator was at the floor below to load and unload the panel.

That will only work on traction gear or hydraulic elevators. This is an old building so the elevator will be a cable hoist. Can’t put stuff on the top of that kind of elevator car.

[Anonymous]

There are people who know how to dismantle and reassemble a couch for apartments that don’t have elevator access. I’ve seen these services in NYC but I’m not sure about DC.

[Anonymous]

Pivot! PIVOT!

[Anonymous]

They’ll just cut it in half and then glue it together. Easy peasy.

[Anonymous]

Take a chain saw to it and make it fit in pieces.