Wheelchair lifts for apartments, condos, and senior housing

Lift options for apartment and condo buildings

Split-entry buildings: a Savaria V-1504 with the commercial package in a framed hoistway in the entry tower beside the steps, usually three stops: ground floor, entry landing, first floor. Up to 14 feet of travel covers the full split, and interlocked doors at each landing keep the steps open as the fire exit they already are.

Shared entrances and stoops: an enclosed outdoor V-1504 on a pad beside the steps, 750 lb, weather rated, with a keyed or fob-controlled call station if the owner wants to limit use to residents.

Lobbies, clubhouses, and senior communities: the Savaria Prolift, an enclosed cab with automatic doors that rides like a small elevator and carries 750 to 1,400 lb, which matters for scooters, deliveries, and a resident with an aide.

A straight interior flight to a half level: the Savaria Delta inclined lift, when the flight is wide enough to keep its egress width with the lift folded.

Short rises outdoors: a 72 inch enclosed Multilift, or a modular ramp when the rise is under about 30 inches and the site has the run. For a lift inside one resident's own unit or on a private porch, the residential vertical platform lift page applies instead.

The budget: a lift versus retrofitting an elevator

Adding an elevator to an existing three-story walk-up means a hoistway through every floor, a deep pit, a machine room, fire-rated construction, displaced units during the build, and a cost that rarely pencils for a small owner. A platform lift in the entry tower or beside the entrance needs a shallow pit or a short ramp, one 120V circuit, and either an enclosure or a simple framed hoistway, and it is installed in two to five days. It is the lower cost alternative to a limited-use elevator for buildings with one or two level changes, and it is the fix that fits a capital budget or a reserve study.

The price follows travel height, the number of landings, indoor or outdoor placement, and the doors and enclosure the state requires. Written quotes arrive within 24 hours of the site visit, with the Labor and Industry permit and the initial inspection on their own line, in a format a property manager can forward to an owner or a condo board. Financing is available. See what a vertical platform lift costs for the factors in more detail.

Permits and inspection for a shared lift

Pennsylvania adopts ASME A18.1 through the Uniform Construction Code, and a lift in a common area of a multifamily building is permitted through the Department of Labor and Industry: plan review and a state permit before the lift is ordered, a local building permit, installation, an acceptance test performed by our technician while a certified elevator inspector witnesses it, and a Certificate of Operation before residents use it. Periodic inspections continue afterward, and our service plans include them. Maryland handles its own lifts through the state elevator safety program under the same national standard, and we are licensed there too.

The ADA Standards require that a platform lift on an accessible route operate without an attendant, so a resident must be able to ride it alone; a keyed call station is allowed as long as every resident who needs it has a key or fob. Travel limits, enclosure heights, and door requirements shift with the code edition in force and the inspector's reading of it, which is why we confirm the configuration with the code official before anything is ordered rather than describing it as settled here. Read more about permits for a wheelchair lift.

Working with managers, boards, and residents

We are used to the way multifamily decisions get made: a site visit with the property manager, a written quote and drawings the manager forwards to the owner or the board, questions at a meeting, approval, then the permit. Where the request started with one resident, we keep that resident informed of the dates without putting them in the middle of the owner's decision. Installation is scheduled with notice to the building, the steps stay open as an exit throughout, and we leave the lobby clean every evening. Before we go, we walk the manager and the maintenance staff through the controls, the key switch, manual lowering, and the emergency stop.

From Etters we cover Dauphin, Cumberland, York, Lancaster, Lebanon, Adams, and Franklin counties routinely and Carroll, Frederick, and Washington counties in Maryland. Call or request service and we'll explain the visit before we come out. City pages: Harrisburg, Lancaster, York, Mechanicsburg, Lebanon. Senior centers run by a municipality are on the municipal buildings page.