Installing A Lift

[actiondell4]

I didn't know what forum to ask this on,

Basically the question is,how much roughly to put a lift inside a old guesthouse .

The story is,i have a friend parapeligic from a car accident,now even though he has his compo,he will looking for a rent a whole guesthouse 8 bedrooms ,Pattaya,and convert it to his house so he wants to put a lift in there.Can it be done easily?

Obviously if he s renting the building he will have to get owners permission.

Probaly he s better off buying the building but he wont so i told him to see a real estate agent .

Is there much rigmarole to installing a lift,i imagine he may have to tip the owner ,but building survey ? how much roughly ?

Someone with building knowledge may be able to answer this,but he is looking for a guesthouse ,so what would he look for in the building which would make it unsuitable for lift installation?

[slapout]

I rigged up a mechanical lift for a friend of mine one time for a 3 story house. It was a wire cage type with a counter weight system for him and his wheel chair, which went from the attic to the first floor. We cut the required opening in the floor of the 2 floors he wanted to alight on. You just get the counter weight such that they can pull upward and their weight returns the lift downward. The pulley system in the attic needs to be reinforced to handle the combined weight of the individual and the counterbalance. A little hand break (dog device) through which the rope threads thru gives slowing, stopping and stationary option. Its basically a over sized dumb waiter with the hand break added.

[Soutpeel]

You would be better contacting on of the lift companies ie Mitsubishi, Otis etc, retro-fitting a lift in an existing building is difficult/time consuming/ and costly due to possible structual requirements etc....

Would a "Stair climber" type arrangement not be better ?

[H2oDunc]

Would it not be cheaper, easier and a lot less hassle to just find a nice big bungalow and adapt that ? it is the way I would go if I was in the same position. I would imagine it wouldn't cost a lot to make a bungalow wheel chair friendly. I certainly wouldn't want to risk my life in something knocked up by the local Somchai mechanic.

[Soutpeel]

I certainly wouldn't want to risk my life in something knocked up by the local Somchai mechanic.

Or Somchai "Slapout" either....

[slapout]

I certainly wouldn't want to risk my life in something knocked up by the local Somchai mechanic.

Or Somchai "Slapout" either....

Oh yea of little faith. To be honest I copied the lift which was used in grain elevators to travel from the ground floor to the top of the grain lift/storage tanks. (90 foot+_). For a shop house, rig the wheelchair up with shock absorbers if you are that concerned. You need to have a little adventure in life. A further point, the southern engineered lift was used for 15 years and sadly the individual went to the happy hunting grounds.

[dave111223]

I rigged up a mechanical lift for a friend of mine one time for a 3 story house. It was a wire cage type with a counter weight system for him and his wheel chair, which went from the attic to the first floor. We cut the required opening in the floor of the 2 floors he wanted to alight on. You just get the counter weight such that they can pull upward and their weight returns the lift downward. The pulley system in the attic needs to be reinforced to handle the combined weight of the individual and the counterbalance. A little hand break (dog device) through which the rope threads thru gives slowing, stopping and stationary option. Its basically a over sized dumb waiter with the hand break added.

I get a feeling there could be an article titled "Disabled man falls to death in homemade lift" in the paper in the near future.

As to the OP I'd be willing to take a punt that no one would be willing to install a legitimate elevator in an existing building for less than 500K. And i find it pretty unlikely that a landlord would allow this kind of construction on a rental property... I've had a hard enough time trying to get permission just to paint the walls!

What if he leaves after a couple of years? The landlords got to try to find a new tenant who wants to rent an 8 room converted "old" guesthouse with a custom elevator..?

Edited November 20, 2010 by dave111223

[actiondell4]

lol..yere thank everyone..and thanks slapout ,dont think my friend is looking for "grain " type elevator,lol

Dave i thought it might be in the 1 million baht range,im not sure about the landlord,im thinking some may think its adds value to their building ?

I spoke to him on the phone today,i told him go to Pattaya and find a place already with a lift.

He says that its not easy,im sure if he went to a real esate they might help.

The stairmaster idea was good,but as you know the stairs are not straght up stairs in most of these places.

I still think if he bought the leasehold of some guesthouse,most of them going cheap now or found a empty place ,must be a building somewhere with 8 plus rooms ,even on the outskirts of Pattaya then i think the majority of landlords would love to have a lift installed.

Does anyone know if you have to have City Council permission and all that ?

Edited November 20, 2010 by actiondell4

[harrry]

As a wheelchair user myself I would strongly suggest that your friend comes over here and sees for himself. He may find that the lack of Medical care which will be covered by his insurance and the general inaccessibility of buildings will be a problem for him. Operating a business is unlikely to make much money as he must have thai partners. If he decides to come I can ell him that my pickups wheelchair lift cost me over 100000baht and that is only a chinese one.

I am not saying he should not come, returning here was the best thing I could have done, just to come and look before commiting himself. Lift accessible condos do exist. It may also be possible to rent a suitable flat facility. I wish him the best here.

[actiondell4]

Yes thanks Harry.

I agree,the footpaths around Pattaya are not really good for people with Disabilities.

I do think my friend Tim and his wife will find a suitable building maybe on the outskirts of Pattaya,up near the highway or whatever,it's just a matter of time and i imagine finding a Landlord who agrees on them installing a lift.

He has been here a few times,he uses a sports type wheelchair and he lifts weights everyday to keep himself strong.

I told him budget for about 1 million baht and maybe,just maybe a month in installation time but then again TIT.

I dont know many shophouses with 8 plus bedrooms with a lift,very hard to come by,so he may get lucky with a landlord.

[Riley'sLife]

Cost of installing a residential elevator servicing 2 floors only last year was in excess of 1m Baht, just for the elevator to be installed in a new-building with all the shaft accommodation work already completed.

Additional costs could be substantial where the elevator shaft has to be formed to pass through concrete floors, as in a traditional Thai shophouse. It may well be cheaper to install the elevator externally if the site conditions allow.

I think slapout's idea is the perfect solution.