Stairs and halls you can use safely every day

Figure out what the stairs need before you start pricing lifts. We prepare stairs for lifts and we also build first-floor bedrooms, so it makes no difference to us which way you go.

On a lift job, our part is coordinating it and getting the stairs and the power ready. Some powered lifts go in through a qualified installation partner, and we tell you which ones before you agree to anything. Sometimes a second rail is all the stairs need for now. That's a far smaller job than a lift or a new bedroom, and the report says so when it's true.

When the bedroom or the laundry sits on a different floor from the kitchen and the living room, every trip is a risk, and people start rationing them. The first fix is a solid rail on both sides of the stairs. Good light at the top and bottom, and a high-contrast strip on each step's edge, show exactly where every step ends. For a lot of people that's enough to keep using the stairs safely.

When the climb itself is the problem, a stair lift carries a person up on a seat that rides a rail. Stairs that run straight take a straight lift. Stairs that turn or stop at a landing partway up need a curved one, which is made for that one staircase and costs more.

Getting upstairs is half of it. Then a person still has to get from the bed to the bathroom and back. Hallway rails give a steady hold on a long walk. Inside doorways get widened where a walker or wheelchair has to pass, and raised thresholds come out so the floor stays level from one room to the next. Round knobs become levers that open with an elbow or a closed hand. We're after one clear route through the house that fits how the person moves now.

A lift usually goes in faster and costs less up front. A first-floor conversion takes longer, and it takes the stairs out of the day for good. The assessment looks at both in your house and writes down what each one involves, so the family is choosing between two real plans.

A lift has to fit the stairs it runs on. We measure the width of the stairs at the narrowest point, the landings at the top and bottom, any turns, and the distance to the nearest outlet. Those numbers decide whether a straight lift fits or a curved one is needed, and whether a loose tread or a wobbly rail has to be fixed first. Our crews do that prep and run the power.