Vertical lift: through the floor or up a few steps

A through-floor lift is a car or platform that runs on a wall-mounted track or in a self-contained enclosure between two floors. Some carry a person seated; wheelchair models carry the user in their chair. It needs a position where the ceiling can be opened without cutting through a main beam, usually from a living room to a bedroom above, with space around it on both floors.

A short-rise vertical platform lift raises a wheelchair a limited height, for example from a path to a front door with steps, from a hall to a sunken living room, or at the edge of a raised terrace. It is simpler than a through-floor lift but needs a level area to approach and leave, and outdoors it has to be weatherproof. Vertical lifting platforms for people with impaired mobility are covered by the standard BS EN 81-41.

Cutting an opening in a floor is structural work: joists are cut and new trimmers carry their load around the hole. Where the opening lands must be checked for pipes, cables and the room layout upstairs. The ground floor needs a power supply for the lift, usually on its own circuit, which is notifiable electrical work in England.

The opening also breaches the fire separation between the two floors. The lift design and the surrounding work have to keep the house's escape arrangements sound, and Building Control will want to see how. Ask the installer who arranges the structural calculation, who notifies Building Control and who does the making good, plastering and decorating afterwards.

• lift model, rated load and whether it takes a wheelchair
• exact position on both floors and the space needed around it
• structural calculation and who provides it
• Building Control application and fire safety details
• electrical supply and certification
• making good: ceiling, floor coverings, decoration
• battery back-up, emergency lowering and alarm
• servicing interval, warranty and breakdown response

A Disabled Facilities Grant in England, Wales or Northern Ireland can fund a through-floor lift if the council agrees it is necessary and appropriate, and reasonable and practicable for the property. Because of the building work, councils often want an architect or surveyor to oversee it, and the grant can go towards their fees. Planning and Building Regulations approvals are separate from the grant. Work must not start before the grant is approved.

VAT Notice 701/7 allows services necessarily performed to install, repair or maintain a lift to be zero-rated where the lift is designed to help a disabled person move between floors of their private residence. The person, or someone for them, signs an eligibility declaration.

If the stairs can take a seated stairlift and the user can transfer safely, a stairlift is quicker and involves no structural work. If the person's needs are likely to change within a short time, the upheaval of cutting a floor may not be justified. An occupational therapist's assessment, arranged through the council, compares the options with the person's needs in mind. In some homes a ground-floor bedroom and bathroom turn out to be the better solution.

Tell us which floors the lift should connect, the likely position, whether a wheelchair must fit and whether a grant has been applied for. After you confirm your phone number and email address, lift installers near you see the request without your details, and one installer can buy it. It then comes off the list. We email you the installer's name, address and phone number before your details are released. There is no cost to you, no guarantee of a taker, and unsold requests are withdrawn after 21 days. Offrano checks only that buyers are registered businesses.