| Retro-fitting an elevator in your home |
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January 2011- Home accessibility lifts and residential elevators - what is the differance?Home accessibility lifts and residential elevators both have the ability to be incorporated into your home, but are quite different.Accessibility Lifts These devices include stair lifts, porch lifts , inclined platform lifts, and vertical platform lifts. There primary usage is to get and individual from one floor to another. The design of these lifts is centered around accessibility (larger buttons, limited features). Accessibility lifts operate on constant pressure controls and can not be made to function otherwise. It is more common to retro-fit these devices into existing homes as they often take up less space, or can be placed directly on the stair case. A vertical accessibility lift is sometimes called an " open cab lift " or a " vertical platform lift " . These terms are applied due to the nature of the cab design. They have no ceilings and are open to the lift shaft or hoistway. These lifts are often refered to as basic elevators, or stair elevators, and can be a cost effective solution to your accessibility needs. Residential Elevators A residential or home elevator can be as basic or elaborate as you like. These elevators will operate using " single touch operation " just like a regular elevator. Due to this, they are required to have gates that travel with the cab. Most manufactures have moved away from light screens and replaced this option with a power gate on their order forms. A home elevator can come with a variety of wall finishes and ceilings, it is even possible to have a home builder or carpenter finish the elevator car to match the existing decor of your home. The landing entrances can be as simple as any other door in your home (with an interlocking device wired into the elevator's safety circuit) or as elaborate as a sliding elevator door. Once the travel of a device exceeds 14 feet the cost of home elevators and vertical accessibility lifts are quite comparable. In Alberta or Eastern BC if you would like a free in home consultation please contact Canwest Elevator and Lifts at 1 866 661 6777. You can also visit our Calgary or Edmonton offices. July 2009 - What you need to know before you retro-fit Did you know that you can retro-fit a home elevator or accessibility lift into your existing home? The key is to find mutually unused space on each floor that the elevator or lift needs to access. This usually requires anywhere from 25 to 30 square feet, but make sure to contact a sales representative before proceeding. Once you have determined where the device will be located, you next need to consider overhead and pit requirements. The pit requirement can be anywhere from no pit at all to a depth of 14 inches. The typical overhead required for home elevators is usually satisfied through standard construction (8 foot ceilings) , but in some cases you will require up to10 feet. If you are thinking about retro-fitting a elevator or lift into your home, a CANWEST representative would be happy to conduct a free consultation along with a general contractor, who specializes in barrier free construction.
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