Will a Stair Chair Lift Work on Any Kind of Stairway?
A stair lift can be made to work on any stairway, but you must always consider the costs. Generally, stair lifts are attractive because they offer significant functionality at low cost. Straight stairways are the most common, and the easiest to address. Though slightly more complicated, stairways with 90-degree turns or 180-degree turns are still relatively simple, although more expensive due to the requirement for two chairs. Curved or winding staircases are the toughest and the most expensive. Let's examine each of these scenarios separately.
The most common stair lifts are made for straight stairways. The track that the stairlift rides upon is manufactured in sections. The installer simply attaches each section of track until reaching the required length, and the last section is cut to the appropriate size for the unique stairway. If there are doors at the immediate top or bottom of the stairway, the track is raised slightly to allow the door to close. This simple installation is the least expensive solution of all.
Many stairways in two-story homes make 90-degree turns, or turn 180 degrees back in the opposite direction. In both examples the stairway will have a landing that separates the two stairways. Each stairway is short and requires a shorter track than a single stairway, but you must have two chairs, one for each stairway track. Each chair may swivel toward the other so the occupant may slide from one chair to the next to complete the journey. This makes the solution more expensive, but no less effective at addressing the problem. We are often asked why the track cannot make the turn on the landing. A stair chair rides in a fixed position to the angle of the stairs. In order for the chair to remain upright when crossing a level landing (and not dump out the occupant), it would require more complicated engineering such as that used in curved staircases, thereby driving up the cost. Accordingly, the solution is simply to use two chairs to achieve the same result at a lower cost.
Curved stairways always require a custom installation. As you can imagine, the track must be bent to the proper angle and joined flawlessly to achieve the essential angle. This one demand alone makes it impractical for a homeowner to measure the stairs, and certainly ill-advised to attempt installation. The cost rises dramatically for curved stair liftss, sometimes reaching upwards of $15,000.
One last point about curved stair lifts: If you decide to pony up for the extra expense and get a custom installation, you will have a much tougher time selling the stair lift when you are finished with it. Straight stair lifts can be used in any other straight stairway by simply cutting the last piece of track, or adding extra pieces. Curved stair lifts are custom-fit and will seldom fit any other stairway, making them very difficult to sell at any price.
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