Hello all, I am a first time poster on this message board, though have read many and have been a long time reader of Fine Homebuilding. I am currently remodeling a basement bath for a local Dr. and he seems well pleased with my work, as this is my second remodel on his home, the first being his kitchen, two years ago. Here is my quandary. He wants to install a residential elevator, as his house has three levels, and there seems to be room next to the stairwell itself. I have not opened up any of the walls as of yet to check the feasibility of such a project, but I would greatly appreciate any and all tips, tricks, and techniques related to this job. I know from the vast readership your mag has, and the countless times I’ve used the info contained between the pages, that my problem is probably no problem at all for many.
Thanks to all huey_56
Replies
Huey,
I did one last year with an elevator Co. You just frame to their specs. It's just a big closet with doors or half doors on the upper floors. Got questions?
KK
did one of these once, you'll have a hoistway wall to prepare, preferably with a plumb bob,then there was an insulated room for the eguipment, to muffle noise.
no turn left unstoned
huey,
I did one last year also. Ours was only two story but was a little interesting. The best location was from the living room to the master bedroom which meant that we needed to build an addition for the shaft or hoistway. The location happened to be in the middle of a flagstone patio covered by a flat roof. Since the house was only 15 years old the soil next to the existing foundation was all backfill which meant we had to hand dig a 6.5' x 6.5' x 8' deep pit. Luckily our mason had the men to do this and they did a great job. Our customer had done his own research and chose the elevator himself. Safety was a big issue for him and he opted for a hydraulic lift which meant in the case of a malfunction the lift would simply glide down to the lower level. This unit was manufactured by the Whitaker Co. in Putnum, CT. If I can track down the # I'll post it later. If the lowest level is a concrete floor you will have to cut through to create a pit. We put a little extra effort into square, straight and plumb and made sure everything was dead on, but otherwise it's was nothing special. The only thing out of the ordinary was some 10" LVLs fastened between studs in one wall of the hoistway to secure the rails to.
Access Industries makes several lines of home elevators that don't require any pits or equipments rooms.
http://www.accessind.com/elevators.htm
Disclaimer, years ago I did some design work on the controls for some of their chair lift systems. I have no personal knowledge of the elevators and I have not done any work for them recently.
You may want to check with your insurance company. They (and you) may prefer to have your client contract directly with the elevator company, and contract with you for all the building modifications and construction coordination, with the elevator contractor spelling out exactly what they need from your end. The markup on the elevator may not be worth the liability you'll pick up. And they'll be calling you for every little problem that was beyond your control from the start. Maybe the other posters above could shed some light on the liability issue.
Be seeing you...
I never addressed the liability issue since the owner came to us with his decision already made. But I would also have the owner contract separately. You could certainly end up with a lot of legwork and research. We were supplied drawings and specs and had one meeting with the elevator company. All in all it was pretty painless.
One small point, since ours was an addition we had to heat and A/C the hoistway because extreme temperature changes could expand and contract the steel rails. The elevator company did not think it was a serious concern but our customer was very conservative and wanted it that way.
I'd agree with the elevator company on the rail expansion issue, but if you (or I) were the manufacturer, why turn down climate control for your equipment when the customer insists? 0.5 inch thick rails will only grow 0.0003" in thickness from 0F to 100F, and about 3/16" length over 25', more or less.
Be seeing you...
You know, that's probably the surest bet. I'm sure my insurance agent will agree! Thanks for all the input fellas, like I said, I knew I could count on you.
Sincerely huey_56