The most important task for the installation of any type of residential wheelchair lift is planning. Knowing what preparations are necessary can save you time and money and insure that, at the end of the process, you have a reliable wheelchair or scooter lift that will provide accessibility to your home for years to come.
Here is a list of many of the most important considerations when planning to install a residential vertical lift:
Outdoor Wheelchair Lift installations– Many of our customers place their outside elevator lift on the ground adjacent to the porch deck in order to reach a deck or porch. All outdoor deck lifts should sit upon a concrete pad at least 4 inches thick and preferably with steel rebar for reinforcement. The size of the pad will depend upon the footprint of the lift you plan to install, but a pad of 5 feet by 9 feet is optimal, and will suffice for most residential wheelchair lifts. That allows a wheelchair to line up in front of the lift prior to entry and still leave room for the automatic ramp of 18 inches, which is standard on almost all outdoor home vertical lifts. It also provides a large surface to prevent any potential sinking in soft ground or sandy soil. In addition to bare ground you should never place a lift on a blacktop surface. Blacktop gets hot and turns soft, allowing a heavy platform lift sink or tilt. Keep in mind that all residential wheelchair lifts must exactly meet the upper level you intend to reach, and any movement of the lift platform will create an undesirable space or gap at the top.
Rear Deck Installations - Many decks are at the 2nd level of a home as much as 12 feet high. Typically there are posts holding up the deck with open space beneath. Keep in mind that all lifts are open on the end opposite the entry gate. To prevent falling out the front, and more importantly, pinching a toe or worse, there must be a wall in front of the lift. Since most deck posts are no more than 8 feet apart many of our customers use 4 X 8 sheets of plywood to create a facing wall, and a gate at the top in line with the upper rails. This allows you to create a barrier against accidents without changing the overall structure of your deck.
What if you decide to cut a hole in the upper deck floor to allow the lift to traverse completely through, and unload on the deck? This can be done, but in order to avoid pinch points a complete enclosure is required beneath the deck that actually extends above the deck. The above deck portion of the wheelchair lift will have a rail around three sides and a gate. For safety reasons you will not want an open shaft hole in the floor of your deck, and the rails address this issue.
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Measuring the Installation Height – Residential wheelchair elevators are sold in heights beginning at 24 inches, then 52 inches, and two foot intervals at 8 feet, 10 feet, 12 feet, and 14 feet. The proper height you need to measure is from the floor at the bottom to the top edge of the upper floor or deck If your measured height reaches 99 inches for example, you will need a 120 inch vertical lift since the 96 inch model will not reach, and the next available residential vertical lift height is 120 inches.
A large number of our customers purchase simple 4 foot lifts to reach the top of a porch. Short porch lifts are reasonably simple, but you must remember that the ground will have to support a substantial weight. When planning how you will set your lift, remember that the height you need to reach will be from the top of the concrete pad. As long as you can easily get your wheelchair up on to the pad you may be able to use as little as a 2 foot lift. The shorter the lift, the less expense you will incur, so use the shortest lift possible.
Measuring Residential Lifts for Recessing– All residential lifts will have a support structure immediately below the lift platform. This structure is usually comprised of two rails that are 1.75 inches in height on most models. What this means is that the actual lift platform will sit 1.75 inches above ground level. In order to easily wheel on to the elevated platform, the lift must employ a stationary ramp. If you have not constructed your space yet, you have the option to recess the elevator shaft 1.75 to 2 inches in order to eliminate the need for a ramp. In the example of a lift that rises through a deck floor, you must measure from the bottom of the recessed floor to get the proper height of your lift. For example, if the required height is exactly 120 inches, plus 2 inches for the recess, you will need to acquire the next highest lift of 144 inches or otherwise you will be 2 inches short of your required height.
Other considerations when recessing a residential lift– A stationary wheelchair ramp is usually 18 inches in length, 1 ¾ inches high, and placed in front of the platform to facilitate entry upon the raised floor. If the floor is not recessed, the only choice is to use a stationary ramp as described above. The stationary ramp must be installed below the outside elevator lift door if you do not recess the shaft, so the elevator door must be raised 1.75 inches above ground level to accommodate the ramp.
If you have made the decision to recess the floor of any outdoor elevator lift enclosure, you must consider drainage. Rain, snow, and ice are unwelcome companions in a recessed space without a drain.
Measuring for Interior Residential Wheelchair Lifts– There are two major configurations, a straight through access, and an adjacent access. The footprint on each of these lifts are different. The adjacent access lift is wider across the platform than a straight through access model due to the extra room required for entry when the wheelchair lift is at the upper level. If you are building a shaft enclosure the shaft will have to be wider for an adjacent access lift than a straight through access. Since each lift’s space requirement is different, based upon the manufacturer, we highly recommend that you allow us to provide you with a shaft drawing showing the dimensions of the enclosure required. By incorporating our drawings in to your plans all of the sub-contractors will be on the same page and it will simplify your task going forward.
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Custom size lift platforms– On rare occasions your available space just doesn’t seem to work. Before you give up on purchasing a lift for your home, consider that we offer custom made wheelchair lifts for residential applications. These lifts can be made with custom size platforms that can meet your space requirements in most cases. Let us know what the dimensions of your space are and we will provide you with a proposal for a lift that meets your needs.
Building an Enclosure – Enclosures for a wheelchair lift are quite different for outside applications than for inside the home. Enclosing a lift that is designed to reach a back porch deck has been described in item 3 of this guide. There are different considerations for planning to install a lift inside your home.
Enclosure wiring and pre-wiring– Wiring an enclosure in preparation for the delivery of the lift is very similar to the wiring of a typical drywall space. You will want to install your wiring prior to setting the lift, and the drywall. An explanation of interlocks appears below this section. Interlocks are usually recessed mounts allowing the wires to run to a control box at the bottom of the control tower. As part of our service we attempt to time the shipment of interlocks to coincide with the construction of the enclosure walls. This allows you to mount the locks prior to the delivery of the lift, thereby allowing construction to continue uninterrupted. We provide a step by step process for preparation of installation, which includes wiring diagrams, and drawings with measurements for pre-installed components.
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What are Interlocks and Why Do I Need Them? - If you’re not familiar with interlocks they are best described as automatic dead bolts. When the lift begins travel, up or down, the interlocks engage to prevent the upper and lower enclosure doors or gates from opening. Once the elevator carriage reaches its destination the interlock, at that level only, disengages to allow exit. The interlocks on all other doors remain in the locked position. If you are installing an outside wheelchair lift at your back deck or porch you may be using a gate instead of an enclosure. Regardless, you must always install interlocks at both levels for all enclosed lifts, as well as all lifts using gates at upper levels.
We get frequent requests to provide residential lifts without interlocks, usually to save money, under the assumption that a gate with simple latch or lock is adequate. There are no installations of wheelchair lifts that do not require interlocks. The interlock is essential for the safety of the lift, and must be installed in all cases. We will not sell a wheelchair lift without interlocks.
Enclosure access to the emergency manual cranks– When planning the construction for any elevator lift enclosure it is essential to consider what happens if there is a power outage. All residential lifts are manufactured with manual cranks, even if they are ordered with battery backup. A manual crank is viewed as essential safety equipment of last resort. The only reason we mention it here is to remind you to allow for access through the elevator shaft to the crank. On one of our most popular wheelchair lifts the manual crank access is at the upper right corner of the control tower. Since the tower is ordinarily off to one side of an enclosure it is not accessible from the inside. Accordingly, a small access door must be placed in the shaft enclosure immediately in front of the manual crank access. This requires careful measurements, but is otherwise a simple procedure.
Constructing the space above the door to the shaft– An often overlooked feature of lift enclosures is the inside area across the top of the enclosure doors. When a wheelchair lift moves up or down inside an enclosure the space between the edge of the carriage and the wall is only a few inches. A straight edge across the top of the door opening would create what we call a “pinch point”, endangering fingers, hands, or objects in transit. Building code requires that the top of a door be angled at 45 degrees toward the top to eliminate the potential for pinch point type injury.
How to plan for delivery– Most wheelchair lift towers above 4 feet will be shipped in a horizontal position, secured in a wooden reinforced crate, and tagged with a colored shipping packet. The colored shipping packet will change colors if the crate has been moved from the horizontal position. If you inspect the color packet upon delivery and the color has changed you should refuse delivery pending an inspection of the wheelchair elevator drive shaft. The drive shaft inside the control tower is a simple screw type drive that must remain straight to prevent warping so there are brackets at the top for lifting it into position once it is ready for placement.Residential lifts 4 feet and under are usually shipped in an upright position, assembled, and brought to your site by small truck. If you are not having the lift delivered to your home it will be delivered to the nearest freight terminal in your area that can handle large crates. When you bring it home you will need to plan for installation. Residential lifts weigh around 450 to 600 pounds depending upon the model you purchase, and the application. Three to four large men can usually move it, but a dolly of some sort is always handy. Be sure to ask your residential lift specialist for specific weights and sizes of your shipment as well as how it is delivered.
