About This Career

Assembles, installs, repairs, or maintains electric or hydraulic freight or passenger elevators, escalators, or dumbwaiters.

This career is part of the Architecture and Construction cluster Maintenance/Operations pathway.

A person in this career:

• Inspects wiring connections, control panel hookups, door installations, and alignments and clearances of cars and hoistways to ensure that equipment will operate properly.
• Assembles, installs, repairs, and maintains elevators, escalators, moving sidewalks, and dumbwaiters, using hand and power tools, and testing devices such as test lamps, ammeters, and voltmeters.
• Disassembles defective units, and repairs or replaces parts such as locks, gears, cables, and electric wiring.
• Checks that safety regulations and building codes are met, and completes service reports verifying conformance to standards.
• Locates malfunctions in brakes, motors, switches, and signal and control systems, using test equipment.
• Adjusts safety controls, counterweights, door mechanisms, and components such as valves, ratchets, seals, and brake linings.
• Reads and interprets blueprints to determine the layout of system components, frameworks, and foundations, and to select installation equipment.
• Connects car frames to counterweights, using steel cables.
• Connects electrical wiring to control panels and electric motors.
• Maintains log books that detail all repairs and checks performed.

Working Conditions and Physical Demands

People who do this job report that:

• You would often handle loads up to 20 lbs., sometimes up to 50 lbs. You might do a lot of lifting, carrying, pushing or pulling.
• Work in this occupation involves bending or twisting your body more than one-third of the time
• Work in this occupation involves use of protective items such as safety shoes, glasses, gloves, hearing protection, a hard hat, or personal flotation devices
• Exposure to pollutants, gases, dust, fumes, odors, poor ventilation, etc.
• Requires getting into awkward positions
• Lighting is either extremely bright or inadequate
• Conditions are very hot (above 90 F) or very cold (under 32 F)
• Work in this occupation involves using your hands to hold, control, and feel objects more than one-third of the time
• Exposed to conditions such as high voltage electricity, combustibles, explosives, and chemicals more than once a month
• Exposed to hazardous equipment such as saws, machinery, or vehicular traffic more than once a month
• Work in this occupation requires being inside most of the time
• Sound and noise levels are loud and distracting
• Work in this occupation involves standing more than one-third of the time
• Work at heights above 8 feet more than once a month on structures such as ladders, poles, scaffolding, and catwalks

Working in this career involves (physical activities):

• Maintaining a body position that prevents falling when in an unstable position
• Bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching
• Seeing clearly up close
• Identifying and understanding the speech of another person
• Using abdominal and lower back muscles repeatedly or over time without tiring

Work Hours and Travel

• Regular working hours and limited travel