If you are unfortunate enough to have a curved staircase and you or someone in your family needs the use of a stair lift then you are looking at quite a costly investment.

The curves on staircases are not in any way standardized, you could have a whole row of houses with curved staircases and in each case the curve could be different. Therefore, if you decide to have one of these curved stair lifts fitted, then you must expect to have to wait for a while for it to be fabricated and fitted.

The rails have to be customized to suit your stair curve and this is expensive, I have heard it said that it could cost you between 8 and 10 times as much as a straight version, but I couldn’t swear to that. Obviously it is down to you to do your homework and research just what the various manufacturers can offer.

Another downside, unfortunately, is that unlike a straight stair lift that you can sell on when you no longer need it, a curved one couldn’t really be sold for the simple reason that it more than likely wouldn’t fit another persons particular curved stairs. Some companies might try to sell a re-conditioned one but if they tried to make the curved rails fit another stairway they could seriously damage the rails and this could be a serious safety issue.

Fitting curved stair lifts also isn’t something that the householder could do themselves. They have to be fitted by specialists and this is another reason why everything is so expensive.

I have read about the suggestion that if your staircase is sort of ‘L’ shaped and has a 90 degree bend in it with a quarter landing then it might be possible to fit two straight lifts. This not only means that you would save a tremendous amount of money, but time would be saved also, plus the householder could fit the lifts themselves.

If you moved and had another ‘L’ shaped stairway you could more than likely take them with you, if not, they could be sold and you would get some of your outlay back.

Nevertheless, if you have a curve that doesn’t fall into the above bracket and you really do need one of these curved stair lifts then you must prepare yourself for a substantial monetary outlay. Having said that, it could still be worth it’s weight in gold to the person who needs it to be able to travel up the stairs.

You can’t really put a price on giving someone their independence back, giving them a better quality of life – this is priceless.

Curved Stair Lifts is a post from: Handicap Stair Lift

Curved Stair Lifts is from Handicap Stair Lift