We are a close knit family, and spend a lot of time with our aging parents, so when we started seeing a marked deterioration in my wife's mother's mobility we determined to be proactive and study the different options we knew we would face when the inevitable happened and she would no longer be able to negotiate the stairs in their two level house. We were initially looking at having her beautiful old two story home sold, and move her to a small, one level, apartment sized unit, but knew that would be hard on her and Grandpa. A friend suggested we investigate installing a stair chair lift, and are we ever glad we listened to her, as this apparatus, akin to a residential elevator in a way, has enabled our parents to enjoy many more years in their beloved home.

1 - Cost (It's cheaper than moving!)

Though on the surface installing a chair stair lift seems expensive, it's actually a bargain. Weigh the chair & installation cost against the cost of selling your home, real estate fees, legal fees, moving fees etc, (not to mention the cost of the mental anguish elderly people go through with such a traumatic move at their stage in life), and you'll rapidly realize that purchasing and installing a stair chair lift is the cheaper option.

2 - Selection

A quick Bing search for "buy a stair chair lift" returned pages of results and proved a great place to research the different chair styles, installation procedures, manufacturers, models, Ameriglide, Brooks, Bruno, Ada, Acorn were some of the names just to name a few. Quite a few opportunities for a used stair chair lift also surfaced.

3 - Safety

When you are looking at having elderly parents living alone, and operating a fairly sophisticated apparatus such as these lifts, safety is paramount. Every model we investigated all had several standard features built in, such as a "creeper" function, where the chair very gradually starts inclining, reducing any chance of a quick jerk ejecting Grandma. Several had a mechanism that detected any obstruction (such as a toy, or maybe a pet) and would immediately reverse direction.

4 - A Good Used Market

Nothing is forever, and we knew that eventually even Grandma would deteriorate to the point that stair chair or not, she would just not be able to manage in their large house, and an alternate residence would have to be found. With their being such a good demand for second hand stair chair lifts, and the fact that these can be removed with very little damage to the home, it would be relatively easy to remove the lift, and not have it impact the value of the home, nor limit it's marketability.

5 - Grandma and Grandpa's Happiness

Elderly people don't do well with change and the thought of moving was just plain intolerable for them both. Had they moved, and with the difference in their individual mobility capabilities, it was likely they would have needed to be separated. Having a safe, easy to operate stair chair lift installed it enabled them to remain in their beloved home, as a couple, for many years.

Grandpa summed it up well when he said getting a stair chair lift was like "getting their home back again", such was the improvement it made in their lives.