If you have a set of concrete stairs you may wonder whether you can install a stairlift. Of course you can! However, you need to be careful putting multiple screws into the concrete. Too many screws too close together can crack the concrete.
Here’s a stairlift installation we carried out on concrete stairs. A heavier drill is a good idea and you need to use Rawlplugs to ensure the screws take hold.
As you can see in the video, only two screws per leg were used. This was to prevent the concrete from cracking. The legs have multiple holes, so if screws were placed in each one, there would be a weak point where the concrete would be more likely to crack.
A Stairlift On Concrete Stairs
In the picture below you can see a wider view of the staircase. On this staircase, the upper and lower floors were actually wooden, and the landing floor was also wooden. It was the steps which were concrete. If you look closely at the video, you can see the holes which were previously drilled for another stairlift.
Previously, two straight stairlifts were installed on this staircase. But after careful review, the client decided they wanted a curved staircase. Unfortunately, on a concrete staircase, this presents a problem in that the holes cannot be removed once drilled.
Measure Twice Drill Once
Fortunately, due to the wooden floor on the upper, lower and landing floors, this gave our engineer the opportunity to measure the correct distance of the rail from the walls and secure the rail. With the rail in place, he then drilled the remaining holes in the concrete steps.
With concrete steps, should you get the measurement wrong, and have to drill again, you may have weakened the concrete so as to render it unusable for another nearby screw. This is where you have to be very careful.
With normal household stairs, the screws go into the wooden stair treads. A mistake isn’t as costly, because it can easily be rectified. But with concrete a mistake can mean you won’t get another chance to drill another hole if it is too close to the previous one.
Summary
On concrete you just need to be more careful when installing a stairlift. You don’t have the luxury of making errors with your drilling. On a wooden staircase, you can move the rail, and drill another hole next to the previous one, and it is seldom a problem. However, on a concrete staircase you risk cracking the concrete each time you drill a hole, especially if other holes are nearby.
To avoid mistakes, make sure you measure very carefully so you don’t have to move the rail once you start drilling. Don’t use too many screws. In the video above, we only used two screws per leg and there was a lot of space in-between them. Too many holes too close together could split the concrete.
Use a powerful hammer drill and Rawlplugs to hold the screws in place.
Need a stairlift? Call us on 0800 046 3438 or visit our contact page.
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