Benefits of Adding an Elevator to an Existing Home
The many benefits you experience after you retrofit a residential elevator are what convince homeowners to make this decision for their own home. Here are four reasons why you should consider adding an elevator to your own home.
1. Improve the Ease of Access in Your Home
Having an elevator in your home means you can have a much easier time transporting yourself and your belongings among the floors of your home. When you buy new furniture, have visitors with mobility issues or just don't have the energy to climb up a few flights of stairs, you'll really appreciate having the elevator in your home.
For those who live there and for visitors, accessibility is a growing concern. Making not only public places more accessible for those who are differently abled is a step forward in inclusion, as well as making it easier to move around in your own home.
Want to Add an Elevator to Your Home?
If you are looking to add a residential elevator to an existing home and want to learn more about the mobility and home re-sale value benefits, please contact the team at Inclinator, or find one of our trusted and authorized dealers nearest you
2. Extend the Time You Can Stay in Your Home
As we grow older, our age affects our mobility. People in two-story or more homes often face adding mobility assistance devices to their homes or moving to a single-level home. Retrofitting a home elevator is a great way to extend the amount of time you can stay in your home.
When we purchase a home, we often plan to live there for many years. If you find yourself having more difficulty going up and down the stairs, there are a few options to choose from. Installing chair lifts is a common solution, but these devices can actually lower the value of our home because they affect a feature that's already there — the staircase.
Retrofitting a residential elevator does not affect any existing systems or features — it adds a brand new one!
3. Increase the Value of Your Home
An elevator is not a common feature in many residential homes, but it can add value to your home. Since elevators add so much convenience to a home, you can put your home at a higher asking price when you do eventually put it on the market.
This return on investment helps the elevator installation cost pay for itself down the road. Any upgrade or modification that makes your home better is an investment. The cost of a home elevator may be high at the beginning, but you'll see how much monetary value it adds to your home, as well as how much you value it even more as a homeowner.
4. Increase Safety When Moving Around Your Home
While you may have purchased your home planning to stay there for years to come, it may not be accessible enough as you get older. A retrofit residential elevator will make your home inclusive to individuals with accessibility concerns, and provide a safe way to access other levels.
Door baffles can be installed quickly and easily, giving you peace of mind. All of our models focus on safety and reliability. We'll work with you to make sure you're happy with your new home elevator.
Steps to Retrofitting an Elevator in Your Home
If you've made the decision to retrofit a home elevator, congratulations! Here are four steps you should follow to retrofit your residential elevator the right way.
1. Choose a Location in Your Home
Before any work begins, you have to choose the placement of your new elevator. Many newer homes were built with rooms or closets built in a stacked formation. If these features already exist, you can simply convert those spaces into your new elevator. Pantries, closets and other types of preplanned space makes a great location that requires less work.
If your home was not built with these types of places, your installer may need to build a sort-of addition to each floor of your home where the hoistway will go. The installer may also simply look for an existing area where there is unobstructed space to add the elevator.
2. Choose a Cab Style
After you have a designated space for the elevator, you must pick the type of cab. When you're riding in the elevator, do you want it to have a more modern or classic feel? Do you want the elevator to blend more with the existing decor or serve as a focal point of your home?
Asking yourself these questions helps a lot when you're choosing the style of the cab. Since the cab is the part of the elevator that you see the most, besides the doors, choosing a style you love is an important decision during the retrofitting process.
3. Choose a Drive System
There are three types of drive systems available for your home elevator:
- Cable drum
- Hydraulic
- MRL overhead cable drum
The main differences between these types of drive systems are the mechanisms themselves that move the elevator. When you're trying to find the right one for your home, you should think about how much space you have, whether you want a mechanical room or have the space for it and whether you want the types of fluids necessary for some systems to operate in your home.
4. Choose the Gate and Door Configuration
There are different ways to configure an home elevator's gates and doors. You can choose a classic build that has one set of doors. Or, you could choose an elevator that has doors on both ends depending on the placement of the hoistway. Picking the right configuration of the gate and door help your elevator be the most convenient and useful to you — a configuration that works great in your home may not be ideal in another.
Find an Authorized Dealer and Installer
Retrofitting a home elevator can be a big project. Even if your home was preplanned for a retrofit residential elevator, you have a multi-level renovation project ahead.
Working with an authorized dealer and installer you can trust is the key to a successful retrofit residential elevator installation. At Inclinator Company of America, Inc., we will help you find the perfect solutions for your retrofit home elevator installation project!
We offer a variety of different options, letting you customize different aspects of the system and cab. We know we can help you design the perfect addition to your home! To learn more about our home elevators and other products, please contact us today.
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