Advice about stairlifts

DaveTheHutt

Hi,

I'm writing this on my tech-phobic father-in-law. He suffers from hip and knee problems, which have now got so bad that he needs to get a stairlift.

Has anyone got any advice or recommendations they can give? He lives in a 3-bedroom terraced house - the stairs go up about 20ft and then turn at a right angle for another 3ft or so.

Which manufacturers would people recommend? What sort of ballpark price should he expect to pay? Anything to look out for/avoid?

Any help anyone could give would be much appreciated!

Thanks all,
Dave

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

I can't specifically comment upon the lifts myself (other than they can make you feel very insecure when you use them), but I can say be very, very, careful as the sales techniques can be horrendous with them.

Never ever see a salesman in the home alone.

Savvy_Sue

Ask for a referral to the local OT dept (probably via GP) and ask for an assessment: they will advise what is suitable and possibly pay for it (although there will be a wait).

Mayflower10cat

Only to say my inlaws have just recently been persuaded by us that a stairlift would really help them especially as my Mil fell down the stairs a month ago and fractured a vertebra in her neck and a compression injury in her lumber region. She has a huge neckbrace on and will be wearing it for three months. FiL has just had 2nd hip replacement and is recovering slowly. They didn't receive any financial help via the NHS due to their savings, it all had to be done privately. They went to a local company and bought a reconditioned Acorn stairlift. The salesman was very kind and not at all pushy, they said, and he even designed a special 'extra step' at the top of the stairs with grab rails (their stairs sound like your Father in laws, with a small bend at the top) so they didn't need a much more expensive 'corner track' just a straight run. I have no idea what it cost them, I'm sorry, but the same shop also did stairlifts to hire on a monthly basis.

sleepless_saver

What savvy Sue said. And the OT should also be able to suggest other things that might help around the place as well as the stairlift.

Have a search on the forum for stairlifts as this question does come up every so often. I looked for Acorn stairlifts, as they had been mentioned and came up with this tale of high pressure salesmanship.
forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=3710815 .

Parva

I too am with Savvy_Sue on this. I got my local Social Services lady to visit me and ended up with a Stannah stairlift and my bathroom was changed from a bath / toilet to a proper wetroom. Took about 4 months in total from her visit to getting it all done but it didn't cost me anything and it's made living here an absolute dream compared to the difficulties and pain I suffered before the modifications.

DaveTheHutt

Thanks to everyone who took the time to reply - much appreciated!

Regards,
Dave

concerned_relative

My mum had a fall recently, and after returning home from hospital the OT and myself realised my mum needed a stairlift. I decided to do some research and found there seamed to be 3 main companies, Stannah,Acorn and Age uk stairlifts, we decided to have Age uk as we liked the thought of dealing with a charity rather than a large business, and we had heard stories of pressure sales from the other companies.
We made an appointment, thier surveyor came round, who did not pressure us and informed us that the lift would be a straight stairlift called a minivator 950. This would cost £1900 and he told us this was the same price to any Age uk customer, which we liked so we purchased. The lift was fit a week later and everything was fine.
Some weeks later a neighbour of ours had a stairlift installed, I called in to have a look and found it to be the same stairlift as ours. She had purchased it from a company called Companion for £1400 brand new.
I decided to research this company and found that Companion and Age uk are run from the same building in Leeds, they are owned by a larger company called Handicare who supply them with minivator stairlifts.
So if we had called Companion we could have had the same stairlift with the same warranty fit by the same engineers for £500 less, what a con, Age uk are supposed to be helping the elderly! how does this help my mum by taking £500 more for the same product, totally disgusting, wish I had gone to Stannah.

BobQ

OP,

A good brand like Stannah will cost about £1500 new for a straight run but if you have a curved route it will probably cost £4000 due to the fact the rail has to be custom designed (so you are unlikely to get one second hand unless from an identical house). Also allow for the fact that maintenace contract beyond this can be a few hundred pounds a year. Of course the need for this is whether he could manage without it for a couple of days if it broke down.

You can get cheaper models and cheaper maintenance from local firms who are not part of the manufacturers.

Questions to ask (and which any professional assessor will need to determine) is whether your FIL needs the curved version. For example could he manage the last few steps? If so a straight run to the lower landing (if there is one at the turn) might work. But if the turn has steps its probably not worth considering on safety grounds.
Another matter is to consider what the need will be in 5 years time which may also mean a curved rail is needed.

One other thing to think about, if the stair carpet is likely to need replacing in the next 5 years you may want to replace it now since the stairlift (if fixed to the stair treads) may need to be uninstalled and re-installed to do it.

Parva

BobQ wrote: »

One other thing to think about, if the stair carpet is likely to need replacing in the next 5 years you may want to replace it now since the stairlift (if fixed to the stair treads) may need to be uninstalled and re-installed to do it.

A very good point indeed. I had my Stannah fitted some months back and didn't realise that it would be screwed into the stairs and through the carpet. Not a big issue for me as carpet replacement is not on the list right now but when it is I can see it being a problem as the stairlift will need, errrm, lifting.

On another note :-

So if we had called Companion we could have had the same stairlift with the same warranty fit by the same engineers for £500 less, what a con, Age uk are supposed to be helping the elderly! how does this help my mum by taking £500 more for the same product, totally disgusting, wish I had gone to Stannah.

At the end of the day if the stairlift worked and did its job what is the point in arguing. It's like going to buy a brand new car and finding that you could have got it £500 cheaper elsewhere. As long as it does the job for which you paid I see little point in getting wound-up about what you actually paid for it.

BobQ

Parva wrote: »

A very good point indeed. I had my Stannah fitted some months back and didn't realise that it would be screwed into the stairs and through the carpet. Not a big issue for me as carpet replacement is not on the list right now but when it is I can see it being a problem as the stairlift will need, errrm, lifting.

It depends on stairlift design, but some carpet fitters will "lift" a straight stairlift, obviously at the cost of their additional time, since you just need to lift one end, but it does require an extra person. Others will not touch the job at all due to the safety issues which either means cutting around the feet (not elegant) or getting a stairfift fitter to attend at the same time. If the rail needs to be moved out of the way, it can take two fitters an hour or so to detatch the stairlift and release the rail. and two hours to re-fit and test. Stannah might want £700 to do this for a curved track