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The elevators were the main means of transportation between floors. There were 3 stairwells as well but the four elevators in the building central block did the main work. They were always moving and the Otis Elevator company refused us service. They would not send us any technicians nor sell us any parts to keep them in proper repair. Otis made all the mechanical and electronic components. They refused to sell anything to any independent elevator repair companies or any owner of one of their elevators. It was not just a pick on Rochdale. They wanted the monopoly on their machines everywhere in the world. Otis Elevator basically wanted Rochdale’s elevators to fall apart and be removed at our expense. Otis Elevator would not honour the warranty they gave the building developer. There is usually more than one way to deal with a situation. This one was dealt with in several ways. At one point a guy inside Otis was selling us used and new stolen parts which we paid for through the nose. By 1975 the elevators were held together with anything that would keep them going. Tenants would burn the buttons with lighters & cigarettes. They would yank on the safety levers to get the door to shut faster. Residents would stuff crap in the tracks to hold the door open on a floor the usual result was the door trying to close then open then close eventually hammering itself to pieces. Then residents would complain and be in denial about the cause of the problems. Elevator Al our elevator repair man was a true godsend. He and his partner Leith also took care of all the ventilation and air-conditioning. These guys along with Harvey kept the building systems going and we could not have gotten on without them. In many ways the Gods smiled on Rochdale. Elevator Al and his partner Leith were paid a wage for the building jobs they were hired for and paid extra for any additional specialty work that got done. General maintenance was covered by their wage but major repairs were extra. They were doing what every independent elevator company in the city was doing. Otis Elevator was squeezing out all the small guys by selling the builders low cost (not cheap) elevators then demanding the maintenance contracts and refusing to sell them parts without a contract. This led to Otis repairmen selling parts out of their trucks until they got caught. Basically, a good old-fashioned monopolistic power struggle. Rochdale's elevators were as tough as any in the city but the traffic and abuse took its toll. I remember getting on and finding all the buttons pushed or burned or smashed. Or someone had yank on the safety bar breaking it and stopping that elevator from working. I heard stories of 10 people jumping up and down at the same time to see how high the elevator could bounce. We actually had a contract with Otis in the beginning but they had so many call backs they refused to service us. Without Elevator Al, Rochdale would have been shut down a lot earlier from building code violations. The elevators were brand new top of the line models. There was a rumor that ours were the first of this generation installed in Toronto but I can't verify it. The work load and abuse on the units was the reason for the breakdowns. We were hit by the elevator parts marauders in the early days just like all the other buildings with the Otis elevators. Otis refused to contract to us at the normal rate because of the amount of service our units needed. Al & Leith made sure our units ran by making sure nobody else hit our elevators and perhaps by raiding other service vehicles. The Otis policy of refusal to sell their parts to other elevator maintenance companies made it the wild, wild west out there, we were lucky to have those two on our side. Al started working with a metal fabricator and started fashioning the parts we needed. At the end in 1975 the elevators were a total hodgepodge of mechanical parts. But they worked. The stairwells in the building had constant traffic as well. The exit doors at the bottom of the stairs took a serious beating and were always being repaired. This was a constant problem because damaged doors let people who were banned and the police, into the building. We kept a supply of spare doors, hinges and closers because they might need to be replaced at any time of the day or night. When the receiver took over they had a massive budget to maintain the building. We now could do the maintenance overhauls necessary in the building. All the pumps for the fire hose system had to be replaced as well as 2 Siamese connections at the street level. The major maintenance involved a complete boiler rebuild with a company that didn’t want to be there. Some of the “boiler repair guys” were basically offended and a bit frightened by what they saw just coming into the building and going up the elevator to the top floor. But one of the “boiler guys” started partying while at work and that caused other problems. He almost lost his job. But it didn’t stop him hanging around after work. From that point on he was the first one on the job and knew where to find the right people. The maintenance process meant shutting down the whole heating system and cleaning out the insides of the boilers. This could easily turn into a month-long process. The boilers shut down meant no hot water. We could not afford a long process. We had to figure how to only shut down only one unit at a time and switch the hot water to that system. This was going to be another costly addition but it was the best and probably the cheapest way to deal with it. Once the switch over system was installed the various rad breaks could be controlled more easily. 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