When you build your home, it’s rare to include any features that you think might be relevant in the future. For instance, the staircase that you can easily navigate now might turn into a nightmare when you grow older and weaker. This means that getting to higher floors might be a challenge if you grow old in your home. But can you put an elevator in a house? Fortunately, that’s possible. In fact, one of your best options is to look into affordable elevators for homes. Getting the best elevator for your budget will make it easier to move from floor to floor without the hassle of going up the stairs.
Apart from your old age considerations, as you look into home elevator ideas, you will also find that an elevator is quite attractive as compared to other mobility options. This alone can increase the value of your home. For instance, think about when you want to move heavy items from the ground floor to the first or second floor. While a staircase won’t do much to help you, an elevator will make it way easier to move heavy items without breaking a sweat. Apart from that, it will also come in quite handy if you get visitors with limited mobility. Once you decide you need one, you can consult your nearest residential elevator repair company.
Many of us take an elevator at home, work, or elsewhere or use residential lifts on a daily basis. Commercial elevators are used in most buildings to move heavy objects or large quantities of objects, in order to leave main elevators free for personal use. However, rarely do we think about their maintenance and the assistance they offer us, both in terms of convenience and safety. Additionally, there may be elevators that you didn’t even know were in use, that have specific functions, such as freight or LULA elevators. Elevators have also done a lot to aid accessibility in buildings — instead of having to worry about stairs (or simply not get around a building), disabled individuals can now use an elevator to traverse up or down in a building.
An Elevated History
The first elevator dates back to around 236 B.C., designed by Archimedes, but it was in the industrial era that elevators started becoming more prevalent. By 1900, fully automated elevators were available for use and they became more widely accepted by passengers by 1945, as emergency stop buttons and telephones were installed. Today, the United States has over 700,000 elevators in use across the country and they take almost 20 billion passenger trips every year.
Indeed, elevators are so common now, from commercial elevator use to residential use, that United Technologies reports that elevators move the same number of people of the world’s population every nine days and over 10,000 residential elevators are installed annually. Elevators are actually considerably safer to use than escalators — about twenty times safer. Though there are twenty times more elevators than escalators, there’s only 1/3 more accidents.
Generally passenger elevators tend to be either hydraulically-driven or traction-driven. Hydraulically-driven elevators can travel a maximum height of 50 feet, while traction-driven elevators can accommodate medium and high-rise architecture that reaches over 50 feet.
What Kinds of Elevators Are There?
There are five main types of elevators, which are passenger, freight, LULA, home, and personnel elevators. These elevators can all differ in size and capacity. Most elevators are installed in commercial, retail, or residential properties that have between four to five floors.
Passenger elevators are meant to move people between the floors of a building (hence the “passenger” part of their name), while freight elevators are responsible for carrying items, not people. Usually freight elevators can hold a much heavier weight than passenger elevators, are manually operated, and generally passengers are not allowed to use them as a means of getting between floors.
LULA stands for “limited use, limited application.” These elevators are a cross between a commercial elevator and wheelchair lift, and is meant to make buildings accessible for handicapped people who live or visit the building. Home elevators may play a similar role, but in one’s home, specifically, and are designed to alleviate any mobility issues that people have in their homes.
Lastly, personnel elevators are used to get workers and the items they need to locations that are difficult to get to in industrial areas. They’re sometimes referred to as manlifts.
As a Property Owner, Why Should I Consider Installing Residential Lifts?
If you own a block of apartments, it might be worthwhile to think about taking steps to install residential lifts. Getting in touch with an elevator company can help you discuss your options, based on the space you have available. It can help increase mobility, make the building more accessible for handicapped residents, and be extremely convenient for all residents. Residents will appreciate the fact that you’re looking out for their needs. Furthermore, it will add some value to your property, making it more marketable, if you’re looking to sell in the future.
We most often use commercial elevators and residential elevators, but the other types of elevators available make our day-to-day lives simpler, safer, and more convenient. What’s not to like?
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