At a glance
| Way to reach the fitting | Suits | Main safety question | Ask |
|---|---|---|---|
| Extension pole | Light dusting of a small, light fitting that is reachable | Not a way to move, relamp or clean a heavy fitting; what is the fitting's mass and fragility? | Is the fitting safe to touch from below, and who is allowed to? |
| Platform or tower | Occasional work, or a one-off such as installation | This is work at height, so the Work at Height Regulations apply; is there room and a safe floor for it? | Who erects it, who inspects it, and can it get through the door? |
| Scaffold | Installation and long projects | As above, plus cost and disruption each time it is needed | Is it only for the fit-out, or the long-term answer? |
| Hand winch | A fitting that must come down to be cleaned or relamped, with few lowerings | It is lifting equipment where used at work; the operator is carrying a load that can fall | Who is trained, how is the winch locked, what is its marked safe working load? |
| Motorised hoist | Frequent lowering, a high ceiling, a big fitting, a hotel or restaurant | Electrical supply, limit stops, brake, emergency lowering and the examination regime | Who examines it, how is it isolated, and what happens if it fails? |
A first filter, not a safety assessment. How often the fitting must be reached, its mass and its position over the floor decide the answer. Cost is left out because it depends on the project.
Ways to reach a high chandelier
The question behind the choice. A high chandelier has to be reached for cleaning, relamping and repair for as long as the room is open. There are two broad answers. Take the person up to it (a platform, a tower or scaffold, a pole for the lightest jobs), or bring it down to the person (a hand winch or motorised hoist). Under the Work at Height Regulations 2005, regulation 6(2), an employer must not allow work at height to be done if it can reasonably be done safely another way. A lowering system is one such way: the work is done at a convenient height on the floor instead of at a high one. That is a reason to ask for the lowering route early, but it does not make a hoist the right answer for every room, as the table sets out.
Where each option fits. The table is a first filter for a design team, not a safety assessment. How often the fitting must be reached matters most. A fitting reached once a year may be well served by a tower brought in for the job. A fitting in a lobby that must be relamped and cleaned regularly may justify a hoist, because the repeated cost and risk of work at height every time is removed. A very heavy or fragile fitting, or one over a stair or void where no platform can stand, may leave lowering as the only workable route. All of that is judgement for the people who will run the building, and it should be settled before the ceiling structure is designed, because the fixing and the supply are built into the structure.
Decide it before the ceiling closes. A hoist needs a fixing to structure, an electrical supply and a control point, and each needs a place on the drawings. Our sheets on chandelier weights and ceiling loads and suspending heavy lighting set out the structural questions; the same questions apply to a hoist, with the added loads and fixings of the hoist unit itself.
LOLER in plain terms
Does a chandelier hoist fall under LOLER? The Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (LOLER) apply to lifting equipment used at work. HSE describes lifting equipment as work equipment used to lift and lower loads, including the accessories used to anchor, fix or support it. A winch or hoist that lowers a chandelier is, on that description, lifting equipment. The regulations apply in Great Britain. They are about equipment used at work, so a hoist in a home where nobody is working with it is outside them, but a hotel, restaurant, club or office is a workplace, and so is a home when contractors use the hoist to clean or relamp the fitting. Whether a specific installation is covered is for the duty holder and a competent person to decide; this sheet does not decide it.
Who is the duty holder. Regulation 3 puts the duties on employers for equipment used by their employees, on certain self-employed people, and on anyone who has control, to any extent, of the equipment, of the people using or supervising it, or of the way it is used, to the extent of that control. For a hotel, that is usually the operator and the facilities manager, and it can include a contractor that runs the equipment. A design team and a partner workshop are not the user, but they decide what is installed, so they should hand over what the duty holder needs.
What the duty holder has to do. From HSE’s overview and the regulations read: plan each lifting operation properly using a competent person, supervise it, and carry it out safely (regulation 8); position and install the equipment so that the risks of the load or equipment striking a person, or the load drifting, falling or being released unintentionally, are as low as reasonably practicable (regulation 6); mark the equipment with its safe working load (HSE overview); have it thoroughly examined and keep records (regulation 9, and HSE).
Thorough examination. Regulation 9 requires examination before first use (with an exception for new equipment with a recent declaration of conformity), after installation where safety depends on the installation, and after assembly at a new site. For equipment exposed to conditions that can cause dangerous deterioration the interval is at least every 6 months for equipment that lifts people and for lifting accessories, and at least every 12 months for other lifting equipment, unless an examination scheme sets something else, and also after exceptional circumstances. HSE adds that the competent person who examines must be independent and impartial and should not be the person who routinely maintains the equipment, and that serious defects are reported at once to the duty holder, with a written report and a copy to the enforcing authority. Which interval applies to the ropes and fittings of a given hoist, and whether any part is a lifting accessory, is for the competent person: put it on the examination scheme, not on the drawing.
Between examinations. HSE says some equipment needs inspections between thorough examinations, decided by risk assessment and the manufacturer’s recommendations, and that trained operators or maintenance staff can do them.
The product side. A powered hoist put on the market after 29 December 2009 appears to fall within regulation 4 of the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 2008, which is how a maker or supplier shows the equipment is safe when it is sold. That is the maker’s duty, but it is why a declaration of conformity belongs in the handover pack. A 2026 statutory instrument (SI 2026/867) amends those regulations and, as we read it, comes into force on 20 January 2027: ask the supplier which regime their documents are written to.
What to put in a hoist specification
These are the fields to fill on a hoist specification and the questions behind them. The figures are for the hoist maker, the structural engineer and the competent person to set. None is given here.
| Field | What to settle | Who sets it |
|---|---|---|
| Safe working load | Marked on the equipment. It must cover the whole suspended load, including the chandelier, any fittings added later, and the hoist's own ropes and hook-ups as the maker specifies | Hoist maker; chandelier maker supplies the mass |
| Travel | How far the fitting must come down, so that it can be cleaned and relamped at a comfortable height, and how far up it parks | Designer; operator |
| Speed and control | Lowering speed, smoothness, hold-to-run controls, any remote or wall control, and who may use them | Hoist maker; operator |
| Brake and redundancy | What stops the load if the drive fails or a rope fails, and whether the system has a second line of protection | Hoist maker; competent person |
| Limit stops | Upper and lower stops, and what stops the load if a limit switch fails | Hoist maker |
| Fixing and structure | What the hoist is fixed to, the loads that go into it, and who has checked that structure | Structural engineer |
| Power and cable | Supply, isolator, cable supported separately from the load, enough slack, a way to power it down | Electrical designer and installer |
| Control location | Where the operator stands, can they see the whole load and the keep-out zone, and is the control lockable | Designer; operator |
| Emergency lowering | How the fitting comes down if power is lost, who can do it, and how it is tested | Hoist maker; operator |
Add the lifting equipment to the lighting schedule and to the reflected ceiling plan, with its fixing points and cable route, and to the electrical drawings.
Planning maintenance, access and handover
Plan the whole life. The cost of a chandelier hoist is not the hoist, it is the regime around it. Before specifying one, ask who in the operating team will own it, and put the following on the handover list and in the operator’s planned maintenance.
| What | Plan | Who |
|---|---|---|
| Examination scheme | A written scheme drawn up by a competent person, with intervals, parts and methods, kept where it can be produced | Duty holder; competent person |
| Thorough examinations | On the intervals in the scheme (regulation 9 sets 6 and 12 month maxima, absent a scheme), and after exceptional events | Independent competent person |
| Between-examination inspections | As set by risk assessment and the maker; trained staff may do them | Operator |
| Operator training and authority | Who may use the control, and what they must check before each lowering | Operator |
| Cleaning and relamping routine | How often the fitting is lowered, who cleans it, and the weight of any added items such as dressing | Operator; cleaner |
| Failure plan | Emergency lowering, who is called, and how the room is used with the fitting stuck up or down | Operator; hoist maker |
| Records | Examination reports, inspection records, repairs and modifications, kept with the equipment | Duty holder |
Handover documents for a hoist. The pack should hold the maker’s instructions and maintenance requirements; the declaration of conformity and any marking details; the marked safe working load; the installation examination report (regulation 9 after installation); the examination scheme; the electrical certificate and wiring diagram; the emergency lowering instruction; training records; and a drawing of the fixing and cable route. See our sheets on O&M information for decorative lighting and the handover and O&M pack.
Related sheets. For packing and fitting a glass chandelier see packing, shipping and installing glass chandeliers, and for cleaning routines cleaning Murano and crystal chandeliers. For the room and the scale of the fitting see chandelier sizing and hanging heights and chandeliers in stairwells, atria and lobbies.
Specification wording
Paste into your schedule or specification and replace anything in [square brackets] with your own figures. Wording is a starting point: your specification governs.
The chandelier lowering gear [tag] is lifting equipment to be supplied with a declaration of conformity, a marked safe working load [set by the maker for the total suspended load stated in the chandelier schedule, mass [ ] kg to be confirmed], and installation to the maker’s instructions. After installation and before first use it is to be thoroughly examined by [an independent competent person] and the report supplied. An examination scheme drawn up by a competent person is to be supplied for the operator.
The hoist is to be fixed to [structure as designed by the structural engineer, drawing ref] and not to the ceiling finish. Power is to be from [a dedicated, isolatable supply designed by the electrical engineer], with the power and control cable supported separately from the load and a length allowed for full travel. The electrical installation is to be tested and certified to the edition of BS 7671 the project works to [state].
The system is to have upper and lower limit stops [and a second independent stop], a brake that holds the load on loss of power [maker to confirm], a means of emergency lowering that can be used by [named trained staff] without special tools, and [overload or slack-rope protection if the maker offers it]. The maker is to state the action on failure of each.
The control point is to be at [location] with a view of the whole load and the area beneath, lockable, and operable only by [authorised staff]. The area beneath the load is to be kept clear while the fitting moves, and a [sign or barrier] is to be provided. Operator instruction and a lowering and raising procedure are to be supplied for the handover pack.
Terms used on this page
- Thorough examination
- A detailed examination of lifting equipment by a competent person before first use, after installation, at set intervals and after exceptional circumstances (LOLER reg 9; HSE). Separate from routine maintenance.
- Competent person (LOLER)
- Not defined in the regulations. HSE says the person needs practical and theoretical knowledge and experience of the equipment, and should be independent and impartial, not the person who routinely maintains it.
- Safe working load (SWL)
- The load the equipment is marked as safe to lift; LOLER requires the marking (HSE overview). The maker sets it: this library gives none.
Standards and sources
- Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (SI 1998/2307), regulations 3, 6, 8, 9: read 7 Nov 2026.
- HSE: LOLER overview, and thorough examination of lifting equipment: read 7 Nov 2026.
- Work at Height Regulations 2005, regulation 6: read 7 Nov 2026.
- Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 2008, regulation 4; SI 2026/867: read 7 Nov 2026.
- BS 7671 (the IET Wiring Regulations): named only; edition not checked.
Questions we are asked
Does a chandelier winch fall under LOLER?
HSE describes lifting equipment as work equipment used to lift and lower loads, so a winch or hoist that lowers a chandelier is within that description where it is used at work. A hotel, restaurant or office is a workplace, and so is a home when contractors use the hoist. Whether a particular installation is covered is for the duty holder and a competent person to decide.
How often must a chandelier hoist be examined?
LOLER regulation 9 says at least every 6 months for equipment that lifts people and for lifting accessories, and at least every 12 months for other lifting equipment, unless an examination scheme sets different intervals, and also after exceptional circumstances. Which applies to each part of a hoist is for the competent person to decide and record in the scheme.
Who is responsible for LOLER on a hotel chandelier hoist?
The duty holder: usually the employer who runs the building and, to the extent of their control, any contractor in control of the equipment or how it is used. Designers and partner workshops are not the duty holder but should hand over the documents the duty holder needs.
Is a hand winch simpler than a motorised hoist?
It removes the electrical supply and the controls, but it is still lifting equipment where used at work, it still has to be installed, marked with its safe working load, examined and operated by a trained person, and it relies on the operator to hold the load safely. Ask the maker how the load is held.
Can we avoid LOLER by using a platform or scaffold instead?
Those routes bring their own rules: the Work at Height Regulations 2005 say work at height must not be done if it can reasonably be done safely another way. A lowering system is one such way, so for a high fitting that needs regular access the lowering route may be easier to justify than repeated work at height. Take advice.
What should be in the handover pack for a chandelier hoist?
The maker’s instructions and maintenance requirements, the declaration of conformity, the marked safe working load, the installation examination report, the examination scheme, the electrical certificate and wiring diagram, the emergency lowering instruction, operator training records and a drawing of the fixing and cable route.
Download the factsheet
A two-page A4 PDF with the access options compared, LOLER in plain terms, the fields for a hoist specification and wording to paste into your specification. It gives no loads or sizes.