Hello, my name is Paul Harlin with Lift and Accessibility Solutions, and we’re at a client’s home here, in Santa Rosa, California, to talk a little bit about the difference between a straight and a curved stairlift.

Straight stairlifts are actually purchased with approximately 16 feet of track. We need 15 feet on the stair and about a foot that runs past, and we can cut that track to any length we want and install it in a client’s home, as long as their stairs are straight. The cost factor is a lot less on a straight because we’re buying 10 at a time, cutting it to size and installing it in the client’s home.

When we have any other scenario, if we have a landing, if we have a 90-degree switchback, or in this case, when we have a curved set of stairs, we have what’s called a custom stairlift. In this scenario, there’s two things that push the price up to almost four times the number that a straight would cost. One is the fact that the rail is actually custom made for that specific set of stairs. That means we bring the camera and measure out those stairs, send it to the factory, have the rail made and then bring it in and install it.

Number two, the carriage itself has to adjust your seat to always keep it level regardless of what’s happening below you, because when you’re riding on a chair, you don’t want to be sliding back and forth; you wanna sit nice and straight. Since the rail’s changing angle below you, the carriage has to adjust your seat to make that happen. Those two changes between a straight and a curved are what cause the cost to be so much higher for that curved stairlift.

This is Paul Harlin with Lift and Accessibility Solutions. If you have any additional questions please leave a comment below.