Cost of Stair lifts?

One day about twelve months ago, my wife and I had a chat and decided that in view of our age and increasing joint problems, to have a stair lift fitted. It was fitted Tuesday in the following week. The day after, Wednesday, I had a really bad fall resulting in very bad pain in my right hip. I was away from home for five weeks. We are so happy to have made the decision to have a stair lift fitted. I have not yet recovered from the fall and, according to the doctor, I may not do so but the lift makes life so much easier. It has turned our house into a bungalow.

Before we had our lift fitted, we managed for a couple of years by having a second handrail fitted to our stairs, going right from the top to the bottom. The two handrails, fitted, cost £120, so worth thinking about as a first step, if your stairs are suitable.
It makes an enormous difference, and we still try to use the stairs as much as possible, for the exercise!

I've a stairlift that goes round 3 bends. It cost over £4000. I haven't been very satisfied with the after sales service of the company that installed it

We had a stiltz lift fitted 18 months ago, and are thrilled with it. We weren't keen on a stairlift as we had already had two handrails fitted to our stairs, and wanted to leave the stairs clear so we could continue to use them as much as possible.
The through floor lift was fitted in two days and has been a godsend. It's easy to use, just stepping in and out, and also useful for taking up the vacuum cleaner, washing basket, or other heavy items.
The drawback of course is the price. Ours is the clear version with seat and handrail, and cost nearly 10000. This meant we spent a very long time deciding on it, but compared it with the cost of moving to a bungalow, which we did not fancy anyway.
We had enough saved to pay for this, and it's one of the few purchases we have never regretted.

Grace That is good to know, the four years. That is how long my son will be away so I don't know what will happen after that. But I do need it now. Thank you.

I hope they can help rubylady. I know things have changed recently but I remember when SS turned mums bathroom into a wet room talking to the lady who came. It was probably as expensive as an expensive stair lift but she said if it kept mum in her own home for more than four years it was worth it to the council. That must be eight to ten years ago so it has certainly paid for itself. I do hope they think the same about putting a stair lift in for you - it would make such sense. Do let us know how you get on

I've made enquiries to stair lift companies and was contacted to make appointments for salesmen to come round and measure up and give me a quote. The first woman called and was very pushy, didn't ask if I was free the day she put forward or if I was feeling ok enough for someone to call. The second lady, however, was lovely. I did make appointments but had to cancel due to feeling terrible yesterday. But with what you are saying about the cost, I couldn't afford that anyway.

I do have SS coming round tomorrow, to see if help needs to be put in place with my DS leaving. He does do a lot for me when I can't manage so they are coming to see if I need carers etc. I will ask her about a stair lift too. It might help my DS settle more if he knows that I am being looked after a little and not struggling. I need a ramp at the door for my mobility scooter and to sort out the downstairs toilet too. I don't want to be isolated, either for going out or even in my own home, even though my settee is super comfy.

I missed the vac cleaner through the ceiling incident --- how did you manage that ?

I agree with you both about the windows. My mother has a bungalow and I cannot think you would ever go to sleep with windows open but having been able to keep her safely at home has also made me consider what I will need to do. (She is 96 shortly so I have a way to go to that point)

I have to say this thread has been a real eye opener for me - GN at its best.

I have thought about that with bungalows Wobbly, added to which there are very few bungalows in our preferred area.

We never leave windows open when we go out but often have the large windows upstairs open at night and that would make me quite nervous I think.

Added to which there is the thought that a stairlift would be cheaper than moving
unless you go through the ceiling with the vacuum cleaner.

(I have one downstairs and another upstairs, can't carry them up and down the stairs!).

GG, The problem I have with bungalows (apart from BL) is that I like to sleep with windows open and leave upstairs windows open when we go out. I wouldn't feel happy about that in a bungalow. Apart from which when we move (as we will do) you get a lot more house for your money. So I would prefer to find a house that has stairs easily suited to installing a stair lift when and should we need one.

I am feeling a little bit of a fraud as I don't need one yet - well not this year, but I could have done with one last year until they sorted me out. I could take hours getting the energy to go upstairs. It gave me such an insight into what could happen and I now feel I must plan. From what you have all told me this is such a good idea. Even if people are down sizing they often want more rooms than they might get in a bungalow.

Wobbly, friends have commented to me about bungalow legs and I have seen how difficult they find my stairs but if, eventually, I had a lift ...

LG I have a wonderful picture in my mind of your friends mum and the vacuum cleaner Probably not funny at the time though.

We are currently trying to persuade ourselves to go the whole hog and have a proper lift fitted. We are still getting quotes and they are wildly expensive but I gather moving house costs a minimum of £20,000 and a lift would not cost nearly as much and would carry laundry, breakfast tray (for me!),luggage etc. as well as the two of us. Watch this space ...

I have been trying to pursued Mrs P that a stair lift is a better option than having a bungalow. Some friends of ours have only been in a bungalow for year and are now finding stairs difficult -- bungalow legs.

If you do go for one Graces don't carry vacuum cleaner upstairs on your knee like friend's mother did - it went through the ceiling at top of stairs!!

A lot cheaper than moving but please make sure, if you do not have a downstairs loo that the call out time if you have a problem, is reasonable! Some will not come for 24 hours. I do advise you to take out some sort of insurance because the bills can run into hundreds of pounds.

So that I am not using mine like a yo-yo, I had my computer moved downstairs so I try to avoid using it unnecessarily. I have found this has helped, there is less strain on it.

Have a look at them on line first, the salesman will wear you out!

Thank you everyone; this is all really helpful. It certainly sounds like it's cheaper than moving

We have just an Acorn stairlift installed. It was installed in 4 days. I was having to sleep downstairs because of immobility and this to us was our only solution. You say your stairs are narrow and the engineer who came told us they could fit all stairs. Ours are curved and posed no problems. It was fitted in two and a half hours. The cost for ours which as I said was curved was £5490. I love it and can't understand why we didn't have one before. No disruption and especially no moving house.

We had ours installed in the spring of 2012, it cost £1800, down in the sale from £2500. We contacted 3 companies, the first 2 said they definitely couldn`t fit one, because our staircase was too narrow, but the 3rd, Acorn, said they could fir one anywhere, and they did. Granted there`s a shortage of knee room on the way up and down, but it`s OK. We took out a maintenance agreement for 5 years, costing just over £500, which we thought was a lot, but we had to have a new motor a couple of years ago, which would have cost us more than the maintenance contract, so has been worth it.

My mother's stairlift has cost her far more in servicing and batteries than it did to install new, about 4 years ago. She couldn't manage without it and they do come out any time if it breaks down, which it occasionally does, but that may be pilot error!

The seats fold up when not in use (at least the one we hired did) and there are plenty to fit narrow staircases GG

You can get them free from social services but we were told there was years to wait so we wanted mum and dad to have it in their lifetime haha
Dad took an insurance out for it and that included a yearly check ups and as I say he had very little trouble with his I think it was only about a year before they died ( both the same year) that he needed a new battery

Thank you both. All this sort of information helps when making decisions.

My stair lift for straight stairs cost me I think £1800 but it was the maintenance afterwards that cost the money. I have had my lift since I think 2009.

A stair lift for curved stairs will not give you much change from £5000 to give you an idea.

Friends of mine who live in a different borough got theirs fitted for free.

My mum and dads stairs were the narrowest of narrow they managed to find a fairly local company that did narrow ones and bought a reconditioned one for I think about 1500 it was still going strong when they both died about 10 years later They had it checked every year and I think if I remember rightly only had one new battery during that time
It was a life saver for them and they were very proud of it and so nice for them to stay in their own familiar home although mum had to eventually go into residential but it helped for a long time