Baby Boomer Upgrade

When we first looked at the house we realized that access to the upstairs would be difficult for me due to post-polio syndrome.  That meant looking into the possibility of an elevator as a stair glide would not work on the stairs. We also had to decide if there was a convenient place to locate one.

As it turned out the company that was the largest residential elevator installer in the country was located only a few miles away so it was easy to get the necessary information and bids.  It's too bad that those things were the only easy part of dealing with this company.  We ordered the elevator the first week of August and were told it would take about 8 weeks for installation.  At the end of 11 weeks I visited their office and was told by the company's semi-retired owner that they had dropped the ball and couldn't find any of my paperwork (plans, material orders, inspections, etc).  In fact he even opened a manila folder with our name on it to show me it was empty.  But he did give me a restaurant gift certificate and then offered me a 10% discount that amounted to $1500.  After seventeen weeks they finally got the mechanical parts installed but we waited another week for the cab to be installed.  They delivered the cab on a Friday but all the wood had been stained and sealed that day so the fresh fumes filled our home and made my wife ill.  We finally got a crew to come and move the parts to the garage for the weekend.  The horror stories continue but I won't relate all of them. However I will say we received another 10% discount and the company eventually went out of business.

Looking from living room into bedroom

Furnace will be located in closet behind elevator shaft

Looking down from the bedroom

8" cement pad / heat ducting for downstairs

Framing the walls of the elevator shaft

Chris on high

950 lbs. of counterweights

220v motor and battery backup

Finally... installation proceeds

The fancy interior

Elevator door on left and furnace door on right

For those who are interested we ordered a mechanical, counterweight rather than hydraulic elevator because they are much more reliable, need very little service and don't require as much space.  They make a little more noise but it's minimal.  The elevator is located in a corner of the front room and goes into the master bedroom upstairs.  In both cases it simply looks like a closet.