3rd floor flat, no lift. Too high?

19lottie82

Only downside was when I ordered an American fridge freezer to be delivered and the delivery men said they didn't do stairs and left it at the front door of the block..........EEK!

Luckily my OH and his friend are pretty strong and managed to get it up the three flights!

I know plenty of people with babies / kids who live on the third floor, but as I said, in Glasgow, third floor flats are very common indeed.

TBagpuss

19lottie82 wrote: »

Only downside was when I ordered an American fridge freezer to be delivered and the delivery men said they didn't do stairs and left it at the front door of the block..........EEK!

Luckily my OH and his friend are pretty strong and managed to get it up the three flights!

I know plenty of people with babies / kids who live on the third floor, but as I said, in Glasgow, third floor flats are very common indeed.

Eek! I don't live in a flat but I had this when I bought a new double bed - the delivery guys said they didn't do stairs. I told them that in that case they had better put the bed back in the van and take it back, as it was no good to me in the front hall.
They decided they did do stairs after all!

(In fairness, I specifically asked about delivery when I bought it, and was assured that of course it would be taken up to the bedroom)

As others have said, 3rd floor will deter some buyers, but it has the advantage of less noise, as there is no-one over head, depending on how it is built you may get loft space (my sister and her husband live in a 3rd/top floor flat and have a huge loft, very any if storage space in the flat is limited!)
It's also quieter as you've less street noise, and no-one coming past on the stairs, and being higher up you get better views.

I know people who would not buy a flat unless it's the top floor, so while it will put some people off, it will be attractive to others.

egoode

When I was looking at flatsI refused to even look at places over the 2nd floot that didn't have a lift.

[Deleted User]

I lived in a top floor flat which was the 3rd floor (ground, 1st, 2nd, 3rd) without a lift and it was fine. As rs65 said: delivery drivers did not like me at all but it was fine otherwise. The people living next door were a young(ish) couple with a small child and then down the hall was another couple with a young child, they did not seem to mind.

I would happily go back to living in a flat that is in a similar building on a similar floor, it was enjoyable walking up and down the stairs, I always thought that if there had been another floor then it would have become a bit too far but at 60 steps it was fine. I enjoyed walking down and smelling the different floors, although that sounds a bit weird to type out.

(Delivery people would deliver to me, I had a fridge carried up the stairs by the delivery people, all I had to do was specify when ordering things online that it was high up without a lift)

motch

Kynthia wrote: »

I agree, a lift can add a lot to service charges. I tended to avoid blocks with lifts when I was a FTB. I currently live in a new build block that is four stories without a lift, it hasn't stopped people buying and renting here.

Yes, it can add some to the service charge, depends on the number of flats I guess and how they aportion the charges between the flats. A lift is no use to anyone on the bottom floor, but maybe they could still be charged for it (not fair but who knows)

For me the charges for the list relate to about two pounds a week, i'm on the top 4th floor (3 flights of stairs). I tend to always walk down the stairs and mostly walk up, but the lift is very handy for heavy shopping, putting bin bags out and moving furniture/boxes about.

G_M

A few (OK... many) years ago I worked on the 18th floor of an office block.

After lunch I took to walking back up (the canteen had yummy puds at discount prices!). In fact a friend & I had a game: she took the lift and I raced her up. Of course I cheated by pressing the lift call button as I passed each floor, but it was damn good excercise.....

silvercar

It is still on the market, so I guess some people are put off. Will keep an eye on the price.

fionajbanana

Don't forget, some companies that sell large items like sofas, washing machines etc do not deliver above 1st floor. My friend was a 3rd floor flat and her fridge broke. The only one available was at a shop that did not deliver to the actual flat!

It took 3 of us to carry the old one downstairs and 4 of us to carry the new one! The reason that it needed an extra person going upstairs as it was a wider f/f!

ReadingTim

I used to live on the 4th floor of an Edinburgh tenement and got used to the stairs remarkably quickly - the point at which you thought "will this ever end?" moved from half way after the first floor upwards as I lived there longer...!

However, it was when I was a student (ie younger and fitter than I am now), and the place was fully furnished when we moved in, so no lugging of furniture up the stairs. It was also a corner block with a wide and nicely curved stairwell - so the stairs were wider and one had more maneuvering space than a typical staricase, which would have been far less fun.

It was also in Edinburgh, where lift-less tenements are commonplace - it might be less acceptable in England where such buildings are less common (and might be seen as quite odd for a new build, unless it's some sort of conversion)