A WH Scott Group Company
Lift Services
Re-Ropes was the first company in the UK to provide an independent supply and fit service to the lift industry, and has been re-roping lifts since 1986. Ropes, belts and compensating cables supplied and fitted, drive components refurbished, and technical support from engineers based across the UK and Republic of Ireland.
The Rope Is the One Part That Wears Out
Every other component in a traction lift can be maintained in place. The suspension ropes cannot — they wear, they stretch, they lose diameter, and eventually they reach discard criteria and have to come out. Getting that job done quickly, correctly and without the lift being out of service any longer than necessary is a specialism in its own right.
Re-Ropes was the first company in the UK to provide an independent supply and fit service to the lift industry, and has done nothing else since 1986. Independent means we are not tied to one lift manufacturer — we work on whatever is in the shaft, and we specify the rope construction that suits the drive, not the one on a contract.
Survey, supply, fit and guarantee applies to every aspect of the work. Engineers are based across the UK and Republic of Ireland, with contact points in London, Belfast and Dublin.
What We Supply & Fit
- Elevator rope — traction and governor ropes in Seale, Warrington and Filler constructions
- Lift belts — OEM-approved Otis, Schindler and Elatech
- Compensating cable — PVC-coated QuietLink II
- Electrical conductor rope — for maintenance platform steering and communication
- Crane rope — alongside the group’s wider lifting work
- Rope accessories — terminations, grips, shackles and fixings
- Belt ancillaries — connectors, pulleys and cleaning products
- Sheaves and pulleys — re-grooved, refurbished or replaced
Survey, supply, fit and guarantee for traction and governor ropes — Seale, Warrington and Filler constructions specified to the drive, the sheave diameter and the duty rather than to a catalogue default.
Learn moreSite surveys, rope inspection and site investigation, technical reports, SAFed supplementary testing, technical installation advice and technical rope seminars for your own engineers.
Learn moreGearboxes, lift motors, overspeed governor units, brake refurbishment and sheaves. Traction sheaves and diverter pulleys can typically be re-grooved and refurbished within just 24 hours.
Learn moreProof load testing and certification of the lifting beams and anchor points in lift motor rooms and shafts — the fixings a maintenance team will hang a hoist from when the machine has to come out.
Learn moreOEM-approved belts for coated-steel-belt systems from Otis, Schindler and Elatech, held in stock alongside connectors, pulleys and cleaning products to keep lift downtime to a minimum.
Learn morePVC-coated QuietLink II compensating cable for rated speeds up to 3.5 m/sec, giving a larger and more uniform loop than bare chains — plus the travelling cables that carry power and signals to the car.
Learn moreRope Constructions
Elevator rope has to do three things at once: resist fatigue from bending round the sheave, resist wear at the contact surface, and stretch as little as possible. No single construction is best at all three, which is why the right choice depends on your drive and sheave geometry.
Seale (S)
The thicker wires of the outer strand layer provide greater wear resistance. Fewer, heavier outer wires mean more metal where the rope meets the sheave groove.
Warrington (W)
With its thinner outer wires, the Warrington construction is more flexible and better resists fatigue bending than the Seale construction — at the cost of some wear resistance.
Filler (F)
Filler wires pack the gaps between the strand layers, so this construction employs the advantages of both of the above — giving superior flexibility together with high breaking strength.
Drive Components, Refurbished
A worn sheave groove will chew through a brand new set of ropes. Replacing the rope without addressing the groove is the most expensive false economy in the trade — which is why our refurbishment shop exists alongside the roping service rather than separately from it.
Traction sheaves and diverter pulleys can typically be re-grooved and refurbished within just 24 hours — so the machine goes back together on the same visit rather than waiting weeks on a replacement casting.
How a Re-Roping Job Runs
Four words cover the commitment, and they apply to all aspects of the work. Here is what they mean in practice on a live building.
Survey
We attend site, inspect the existing ropes against discard criteria, measure the sheave grooves and record the drive configuration and duty.
Specify & Report
A technical report sets out what was found and what it needs — construction, diameter and quantity, plus any sheave work the ropes depend on.
Supply
Rope, belt or cable is supplied to that specification, cut and prepared with the terminations and accessories the installation requires.
Fit
Our own engineers carry out the change, equalise tensions across the set, and deal with any sheave re-grooving while the machine is already stripped.
Guarantee
The work is guaranteed, and SAFed supplementary testing can be carried out alongside it where the installation calls for it.
Brands & Approvals
Sectors We Serve
Lifts sit in buildings that cannot easily stop working. The constraint is rarely the engineering — it is the access window, the permit, and how long the building can manage with one car out of service.
Lift Services FAQs
Will you work on lifts you did not install?
Yes — that is the entire point of the business. Re-Ropes was the first company in the UK to provide an independent supply and fit service to the lift industry, and independence is the product. We are not tied to a single lift manufacturer, so we specify the rope that suits your drive rather than the one on somebody’s contract.
That includes working alongside your existing lift maintenance provider where you have one.
How do I know when my ropes need replacing?
By survey, not by calendar. Suspension ropes are assessed against discard criteria — broken wires, diameter reduction, corrosion, distortion and stretch — and how quickly a given installation reaches them depends on the drive, the sheave geometry, the traction requirement and how hard the lift works.
We carry out rope inspection and site investigation and issue a technical report setting out what was found and what it needs. If the ropes have life left in them, that is what the report will say.
Which rope construction should I be using?
It depends which failure mode is limiting your rope life. Seale has thicker outer wires and so greater wear resistance, which suits installations where abrasion is the problem. Warrington has thinner outer wires, making it more flexible and better at resisting fatigue bending — the right answer on smaller sheaves. Filler combines the advantages of both and is used where high-rise and high-speed installations need flexibility and breaking strength together.
Our survey establishes which applies to you, and we can provide technical installation advice with it.
My sheave grooves are worn. Do I need a new sheave?
Usually not. Traction sheaves and diverter pulleys can typically be re-grooved and refurbished within just 24 hours, which is far quicker and cheaper than sourcing a replacement casting.
It is also not optional. Fitting new ropes into worn grooves will damage the new set and shorten its life significantly, so we assess the grooves as part of the roping survey rather than treating them as a separate job.
Do you supply belts as well as ropes?
Yes. Since Otis introduced the Gen2 system in 2000 — replacing conventional traction steel rope with a flexible polyurethane-coated steel belt — belt-driven lifts have become common, and they need a different supply chain.
We stock OEM-approved belts from Otis, Schindler and Elatech, along with connectors, pulleys and cleaning products, specifically so that belt replacement does not leave a lift standing while parts are found.
What is a compensating cable, and is it worth changing?
It compensates for the weight of the traction ropes as the car moves up and down the shaft, keeping the load on the machine balanced. On taller installations the ropes themselves weigh enough to matter.
We supply PVC-coated QuietLink II for rated speeds up to 3.5 m/sec and temperatures from −15°C to +60°C. It is a noticeably quieter product than bare chains or chains with a sash cord, and produces a larger, more uniform loop — which is usually why a building asks us to change one.
Can you carry out SAFed supplementary testing?
Yes. SAFed supplementary testing is part of our technical service, alongside site surveys, rope inspection and site investigation, technical reports and technical installation advice.
We also run technical rope seminars for clients who want their own engineers to understand rope selection, condition assessment and discard criteria properly. Ask us about a seminar →
Get the Ropes Looked At Properly
Tell us the building, the lift and what the last engineer said about the ropes. We will survey them against discard criteria, report on what we find, and quote the work — including any sheave refurbishment the new ropes will depend on.