MEI St Louis Elevator Repair

MEI Modernizes SSND Motherhouse

Delivering a great customer experience is a priority at MEI and this is reflected in the relationships we have built with many of our customers over the last 50 years.

School Sisters of Notre Dame in Mankato, MN is one of those loyal customers that has had a great relationship with us, so when we opened a new location in Missouri, we took the opportunity to connect with them at their location in St. Louis.

Branch Manager Chuck Pilz connected with the St. Louis SSND facilities manager to discuss a modernization on a traction passenger that had been originally built in 1888. The elevator was in their Motherhouse and was the only one available to get the Nuns to their sleeping quarters, so the job needed to be completed in a timely fashion.

Because of the relationship MEI had built with SSND over the years, MEI was awarded the project.

This modernization included a new controller from Smartrise, GAL door equipment, Innovation fixtures and we replaced the machine with Hollister Whitney.  MEI also worked with CBI and turned a wood platform that was located inside an attic in to a very nice, efficient, and stylish temperature-controlled room.

MEI mechanics also removed and replaced existing car wiring, machine room wiring, hoist way wiring and traveling cable. The car top station was also removed and a new station with GFCI was installed.

When the project was done, SSND Facilities Manager stated, “I spent years working with the same company. As time progressed, issues became more common. We decided to give MEI a shot at a mod project and they blew the competition away. After things went so well on the mod project, it made sense to give them a shot at our maintenance contract. Chuck and the crew have not disappointed us. Our units are up and running smoothly and have never looked better”.

This project was a great example of MEI employees living out our mission of Working Together to be the Best!

The MEI employees that made this modernization successful were Branch Manager Chuck Pilz and Mechanics Adam Dragovich, Ben Williams, Brent Lane and Matt Fernandez.

MEI Repairs Water Damaged Elevators on Christmas Day

The holidays are a time for family and friends to come together to celebrate and enjoy each other’s company. This year though, Christmas was a little different for our mechanics in St. Louis.

At 1am on Christmas morning, Branch Manager Chuck Pilz received a phone call from Council Tower Apartments, a 27-story building in St. Louis that had a water issue. Pilz reached out to the on-call technician to let him know he was going there and would report back with issues. Jon Harrison insisted on meeting him there to help survey the problem.

Upon arrival, they saw that three elevators were down and the cartop equipment was wet. The damage could not be fixed with only one mechanic and being that it was Christmas Day, we were unsure if any other mechanics were available.

Three of our mechanics, Adam Dragovich, Brent Lane and Andy Schmitz were all willing to show up and help get the problem fixed. The morning was spent going to several places to grab replacement parts and other things needed to complete the project.

The mechanics worked together and replaced all the car top boards, door motors and blown switches. Any corroded door interlock equipment was replaced as well. They also went over all the hoistway locks and equipment from the 21-st floor and down.

After spending the first half of Christmas morning with the staff at Council towers, all three elevators were fixed and operational by 10:30am. The staff and residents were very thankful for the hard work performed by the MEI team.

Being there for our customers is a top priority for MEI and this team proved that when they came together and truly were “Working Together to Be The Best”.