Home Lifts ...

[Gordon Henderson]

OK. In a stupid moment of thinking out loud, (when wifey was listening) I pondered the idea of replacing a staircase in my kitchen (converted small barn) into a lift. The staircase is in one corner and takes up space on 2 walls. There's a good metre square in the corner itself - maybe a bit more, so the ponderings went along the lines of replacing it with a square(ish) lift. So wifey is very interested in the idea... Mostly to reclaim some wall space, but it would be handy to get more stuff up & down too. Washing machine is up there, etc.

Done a quick search and they're in the £10K range that I can see.

Which is too much...

So.. Anyone DIY'd one? I imagine the saftey elves would have a fit, but a nice leadscrew in each corner like a car-lift in a garage, chain driven off a nice low-geared motor, so no possibility of a fall... How hard can it be?

Anyone done it?

(And yes, there is alternative entry/exit from the upstairs involving a door that leads to a 5-foot drop...)

Gordon

[damduck-egg]

Will the wife be happy with mechanical noise? And what about speed as you are replacing the stairs, Stairlifts are quite slow which is something the users have to put up with but the stairs usaully remain for the ambulant or when the user can manage them . A screw driven lift will fairly slow and with no stairs it may become a pain waiting for it to go up and down compared to the time taken to walk up and down stairs. Might be better to to consider hydraulics ,Ram from an old tipper lorry or similar and a motor driven pump . Could have a hand pump as back up in case of power failure. Without stairs that would be wise unless the users are fit enough to use a ladder arrangement which could be fixed alongside the lift.

G.Harmans

[JimK]

Spiral staircase?

Jim K

[Bert Coules]

I looked into this a year or so back, and there was some discussion on the subject, either here or on the Yahoo group UK Selfbuild. A couple of people had actually done it, using secondhand wheelchair lifts: they turn up from time to time on eBay. I still haven't completely abandoned the idea.

[Roger Mills]

Would fit in the space,but wouldn't meet his need for carrying washing machines, etc. up and down.

[Roger Mills]

I wondered about a second-hand garage hydraulic car lift - the sort with a central column and H-shaped platform (with significant chunks of the H removed, to make it the right size). I'm not sure that would lift high enough though, to go from one floor to the next.

[Sam Plusnet]

Can you detach the lifting mechanism from an old forklift & end up with something vaguely like (part of) a paternoster lift?

I imagine you would need to think carefully about safety interlocks & barriers.

[Bert Coules]

That's why a wheelchair lift (not the sort for getting into and out of a van, but the indoor type) seems ideal, since they're made to do exactly that. There's one on eBay at the moment:

[Jeremy Nicoll - news posts]

[snip]

"Upstairs"... Do you mean up some other stairs, or up these stairs?

If the stairs in the kitchen are the only ones, surely you have to keep them, as getting furniture up & down would be really tricky with only a tiny lift.

OTOH if there are other stairs, mightn't it be worth thinking more creatively about the 5' drop? (Tell us more!)

Then, maybe, you could replace the kitchen stairs with an electric hoist, for things but not people.

[Brian Gaff]

Fork lift truck? Brian

[meow2222]

A way to provide exit in case of failure is to fold a loft-ladder in the fl oor, with half the floor being a sheet that folds flat over it. Lift the sh eet up, put the ladder down and out you go.

You do need touch strips to prevent an animal getting caught under a descen ding loft, or limbs between lift & floor/ceiling.

I'd be tempted to add a row of lights reading 1-6 :)

It can of course be as fast or slow as you make it. Safety gates or any gat es at all, arent strictly essential if you use touch detecting strips that stop it.

NT

[Chris J Dixon]

On Grand Designs Australia last week there was a build which went somewhat over the top. Included a very expensive hydraulic lift which eventually emerged through the floor of the roof deck... if you waited long enough. :-(

Chris

[Andy Burns]

I think the requirement was carrying stuff *to* the WM, not carrying the WM itself.

[charles]

and that's rub - hydraulic lifts are very slow. We have two in our theatre. Horrible things.

[PeterC]

Maglev's the answer - 0.1s to the first floor, lift stops, hatch in ceiling and roof just in case!

[John Williamson]

A Wonkavator is what you want.

[Scott M]

Firemans pole. Down only.

Vaulting horse style spring board (as beloved by PE teachers.) Up only.

[Andy Burns]

Even firemen aren't allowed to use poles any more (they're roped/locked off).

[JimK]

Q

Would fit in the space,but wouldn't meet his need for carrying washing machines, etc. up and down.

[Tim Lamb]

In message , Sam Plusnet writes

You need a *freelift* cylinder from a masted Manitou. Mine extends to

16'0. The clever bit is that the cylinder moves up with the first stage followed by 2 telescopic extensions from the top.

Loler regulations expect annual inspections.