At LifeCare Mobility Solutions, we get quite a lot of questions about stair lifts. And, as you may have guessed, we’re only too happy to answer them! In our experience, stair lifts provide both seniors and individuals with mobility issues the safest and easiest access to the various levels of their homes. By installing these motorized chairs to either straight or curved staircases, the difficulties and dangers of climbing the steps are all but eliminated.
We proudly offer a variety of top-quality stair lifts and are especially proud of our Bruno Elan and Bruno Elite models. The Bruno Elan stair lift is designed for straight staircases while the Bruno Elite is perfect for the curved variety. With that said, the LifeCare Mobility Solutions team always stresses the importance of safety and encourages its clients to learn of few things before making their buying decisions.
We recently came across an excellent e-book that is free courtesy of Lift & Accessibility Solutions in Santa Rosa, California. It highlights some of the most important things that consumers should know before buying their stair lifts. In this week’s blog, we’d like to emphasize just a couple of the article’s most intriguing points.
How wide is your staircase?
It’s important to consider stair width because people come in all shapes and sizes. Lift & Accessibility Solutions notes that 36 inch-wide staircases are generally the most ideal for stair lift installation. They point out that it helps raise the comfort levels of individuals who may be a bit on the taller side.
“Stair lifts position you sideways on the stairs,” informs the e-book, “This makes the width of the stairs important. If your stairs are at least 36” wide, most brands of stair lifts will fit well. If you have long bones from your hip to your knee (i.e., you are tall), or you have trouble flexing your knee(s), the width can become an issue.”
Are you a righty or a lefty?
This is an important question to answer for stair lift users. As the e-book points out, users are required to maintain pressure on buttons that call or send the chairs between floors. It would be ideal to have a stair lift installed with the control placed on the side of the user’s dominant hand.
“Stair lifts require you to maintain pressure on the controls all the way up and down the stairs,” explains Lift & Accessibility Solutions, “This is most often a lever of some kind at the end of the right arm rest for most models. Most manufacturers allow the installer to move this control to the left arm rest if need be. Be sure to check with your installer to see if moving this control is possible.”
Of course, there are many more important things to know before buying a stair lift. And we’d like to inform you of all of them! Please don’t hesitate to call LifeCare Mobility Solutions at 647-350-4488 or email us at info@lifecaremobility.ca with any and all of your questions. You may also contact us by filling out the form on our Contact page!
