Here’s a case study of the installation of a reconditioned stairlift in Manchester. In this particular house, there has been an extension fitted to the side of the house. You can see the spare room which the open door leads to in the photo below. For a stairlift installation, this brings up certain problems. It means a lift cannot be fitted to the outside of the staircase. Doing so would mean placing the rail over the doorway, blocking it – which of course is no good!
This meant an internal rail needed to be installed and this throws up some problems too! The rail needed to be tight around the staircase bannister rail and newel posts, so not to take up too much of the staircase space. However, in this scenario, there’s a risk of the rail being too tight and it limiting the movement of the stairlift.
Reconditioned Stairlift Installation In Manchester – Critical Measurements
The rail needed to fit around this bannister rail and newel post setup. With such a stairlift installation, there’s various potential problems which can arise. For example, if measurements are incorrect, the rail wouldn’t fit properly around the newel posts. So, after manufacture and (attempted) fitting, you would have a really unhappy customer!
With the stairlift model used for this setup (the Stannah 260), the rail measurements need to be exact too. The Stannah 260 rail setup includes rail feet which are wielded in place on the rail. This means there’s little scope for adjustment and the rail manufacturers must even know the stair lip positions relative to the newel posts.
The rail leg positions therefore must be planned before manufacture with exact measurements. A slight mis-measurement could mean the stair rail sits too proud of the stairs, leaving little room for other house users. Or, worse still, it would mean it is too tight against the bannister for the stairlift to function properly.
Getting the measurements right is a skilled job, which is why we don’t recommend trying to install a stairlift yourself, even if you’re a DIY fanatic!
Reconditioned Stairlift Installation In Manchester: Installation Day
Here’s the first piece of the rail going in on installation day. Initially the rail is placed in position and then connected together. This can raise some issues because the rail configuration needs to be very exact. Each section of the rail fits tightly together and the joins are meant to last, which means it can be a challenge getting the rails to connect properly.
Here’s the team using some ratchet straps to pull this tricky rail together.
Often a rubber hammer will do but here at UK Stairlifts we’ve been doing this for a while so we have a few tricks up our sleeves for when we meet a challenge!
Adjusting The Rail
Once the rail is fully connected it is adjusted to the optimum spacing around the handrail and newel posts. Once the best position has been found it is screwed to the staircase to hold it in place and the chair is attached to the rail.
Here’s a short video of the installation – find more videos on our YouTube channel here.