Compact, Easy-to-Install Elevators for Any Home.
As our loved ones age, maintaining independence at home becomes a top priority—especially when they can’t get around as easily as they used to and mobility becomes a challenge.
For those with multi-level homes, stairs can quickly become a safety concern. But what if there was a solution that was easy to install, compact, and could enhance your home’s safety and value?
In this interview sponsored by Pollock, we explore an innovative home elevator system that can help aging parents stay in their home. With no need for a traditional elevator shaft, this space-saving lift offers a simple and cost-effective solution for your home. It can be installed virtually anywhere, including inside a closet.
Kim Barnes from Parenting Aging Parents talks with Brent Coutts from 101 Mobility in Houston to show how these compact elevators work, the installation process, and how they can make a big difference for seniors who need to stay safe and comfortable in their homes.
00:20 Innovative and Compact Elevator Design
01:42 Elevator Sizes and Practical Uses
02:16 Installation and Space Requirements
03:23 Home Accessibility and Safety
04:13 Customer Experiences and Benefits
04:50 Ordering and Installation Timeline
If you think a stairlift might be a better option, click to watch this video about Straight Stairlifts.
Or this video about Curved Stairlifts.
Read the full transcript
Transcript of Interview: “Home Elevators for Aging Parents”
Kim Barnes: If you have aging parents who want to be able to stay in their home, but it’s a two-story and they can’t really get up and down the stairs safely anymore, you might have thought, “Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to put in an elevator?” but thought, “Oh, no, there’s no way.” Well, there might be an option that’s more accessible than you think. Today, I’m joined by Brent Coutts from 101 Mobility in Houston. And here’s an elevator that is, it’s sort of mind-boggling how small and simple it is to be able to install now.
Brent Coutts: Yeah, these are really impressive products. They’re quite a recent development in the innovative elevator category. Basically, it’s just this box, which is the elevator cab, and it travels up and down between your two floors, on rails. And then when it’s not at the landing, it actually seals the hole in the upstairs floor so that there’s no risk of falling through them. Mm-hmm. And it looks like basically your regular floor is maintained upstairs, but you have an elevator.
Kim Barnes: Right, but it doesn’t have all the cables and the things that when you think of when you see a commercial elevator, all of the intricacies of that, it’s so much more simple than that.
Brent Coutts: Well, actually, this one is really a commercial elevator, but on a small scale. So it functions very similarly. It has the same level of safety that you can rely on. All of the overspeed governors, the cables, everything is rated to the same code as a commercial elevator. It’s just for residential.
Kim Barnes: Okay. So I would just, this is in my house. I just literally get in and then I would just push the button, it would go up, and I could probably like bring my group. I could take the laundry or something with me to, right? I could carry my suitcase upstairs if I’ve gotten home from a trip, or even there are, and this is the smallest one, right?
Brent Coutts: Yes. So this is the smallest one. There’s a medium size, which is much wider, but the same depth, and then there’s a large size, which is both wider and longer, and that’s the one where you can actually fit a regular wheelchair in as well. But, they’re perfect for bringing up, you know, cases of water, if you’d like those upstairs, suitcases after a long trip, you get home, your baggage was delayed, you just put it in the elevator and you don’t have to lug it up the stairs.
Kim Barnes: And the thing I thought was interesting, too, is that as far as the installation, what sort of still here. The railings are, show us how the railings kind of… that’s the piece that’s going to be up against the wall, right? So when this is sent upstairs to the second floor, I’d be on the first floor, and it would basically be just the regular floor and that would be on the wall.
Brent Coutts: Yep. So this is a short piece of railing. There would be two of these. So there’s one on either side of the elevator. They sit at the back. And so when the elevator goes up to the second floor, basically you just see these nice aluminum rails, very close to your wall, and it really takes up almost no space in your existing living space.
Kim Barnes: Right, so you just need just about the size of the box, and then you’re… I mean, it’s almost just oversimplifying, but just, you’re cutting a hole in the ceiling big enough to fit the box up and down.
Brent Coutts: Yep, and that’s basically it. So you have to do the appropriate reinforcements and everything to make sure that it’s all safe. But that means that they’re so versatile. They can really fit almost anywhere in the home. We just have to go in and find where’s the best space for you.
Kim Barnes: And obviously, this is an investment as far as being able to make your house usable, though, in a situation where maybe it wouldn’t be if you were not able to get up and down the stairs, and you weren’t able to use your second floor.
Brent Coutts: Yeah, absolutely. So these are just another option for home accessibility. There’s lots of good options, but it’s best to find the one that works for you, at the price point that works for you, and at the change to your home kind of aspect.
Kim Barnes: So you can look for certified dealers like yourself to be able to help you with, with, with this elevator.
Brent Coutts: Yes, absolutely. And especially for elevators because they are, pretty serious devices. They’re vertical elevating devices. You want to make sure that they’re installed safely, to code, they have the appropriate permitting and inspection process, and everything.
Kim Barnes: What have you, what kind of responses have you gotten from people who now have these elevators?
Brent Coutts: Oh, just huge. Just recently we installed one for a lady who was living in her living room. So her bed was in the living room. All of her furniture was in disarray, basically trying to make space for herself to live entirely on her first floor. Now that we’ve installed the elevator, she’s gone frantically moving everything around, and she’s just so happy to have recaptured her space, and she can fully live and have her freedom and independence in her own home.
Kim Barnes: On the first floor and the second floor. Yep.
Brent Coutts: That’s the big difference.
Kim Barnes: Brent, how long does it take to get something like this?
Brent Coutts: Really, much faster than you might expect. These are stocked products, which means that they can typically ship almost immediately upon order. You have your typical shipping time to receive the product. And then, the entire installation takes about one week, including the construction. So really, you could be looking at a new elevator in your home in as little as about three weeks. In a couple of features about them, there’s a 500-pound weight capacity on all of the sizes. So they’re all the same. And that’s about it.
Kim Barnes: Yeah. So it’s just really making, putting an elevator, not just reserved for, you know, some big fancy house, which is kind of what you might picture, right? This can be installed in just about anybody’s home.
Brent Coutts: Yeah. And because they don’t require a shaft, it’s a lot easier to find spaces for them. Really, the shafts you’re only going to find in planned houses that are quite a bit larger because the shafted elevators take up much more room, but this one it makes the accessibility, you know, more wide-ranging out of a bunch of different sizes of houses.
Kim Barnes: Sure, because I guess when I was thinking of like the commercial elevator, I’m thinking of that shaft, and that’s the big difference is that this, this is an elevator that doesn’t have to have that. Awesome. Okay. Well, thanks so much for sharing it. If you have any other topics you’d like us to discuss, let us know on Parenting Aging.
*This transcript is auto-generated. Please excuse any typos or mistakes.