Stairlifts, Platform Lifts and Who May Install Them

Why this matters

A customer who can no longer manage the stairs will sooner or later show your tech a stairlift kit bought online and ask whether you can just bolt it in. It looks like a rail, a carriage and a charger, well inside what a handyman or electrician does every week. In a good part of the country it is regulated conveyance work, the same family of law as elevators, and doing it without the license can mean a stop-work order, an uninsured injury and a lift that has never had its safety devices proven. This card covers what these machines are, what standard governs them, who the law lets install them, and which parts of the job are genuinely yours.

The machines, named

Four device families come up in houses, and the name matters because the rules attach to the name.

• Stairway chairlift. A seat on a carriage that runs along a rail fixed to the stair treads. The rider sits, travels, and swivels the seat to step off at the landing. Straight-rail units suit a single straight flight; curved rails are custom-bent to the stair and are measured by the dealer, often by photo survey.
• Inclined platform lift. A folding platform on a rail along the stair that carries a person seated in a wheelchair. Heavier rail, heavier anchorage, more stair width consumed.
• Vertical platform lift. An open or enclosed platform that rises straight up, usually 4 to 12 feet, commonly at a porch or a split level. Often the practical answer at an entry where a ramp would run too long.
• Residential elevator. A car in a hoistway. Governed by a different standard (ASME A17.1, which has its own section for private residence elevators) and almost never a trade-shop job.

The standard: ASME A18.1

ASME A18.1, Safety Standard for Platform Lifts and Stairway Chairlifts, is the consensus standard for the first three families. It sets design, installation, inspection and testing requirements, and it has separate parts for installations in a private residence, which are lighter than the parts for public buildings but not empty.

A18.1 is not law on its own. It binds when a state or city adopts it, usually by reference in its elevator or conveyance code, and the edition that binds is the one your jurisdiction adopted, which may be several cycles behind the current one. Where it is adopted it reaches the installer through the permit and the acceptance inspection. Where it is not adopted, it is still what the manufacturer designed to and what an expert witness will measure your work against.

What A18.1 cares about on a chairlift is the protective functions: the obstruction sensors on the footrest and carriage that stop travel when they touch something, the overspeed governor or equivalent that stops a runaway carriage, the seat swivel interlock that will not let the lift move with the seat turned, the key or switch that disables it, and the final limits at each end. An acceptance test proves each one works. That is the part a kit installer skips, and it is the part that keeps a rider from being driven into a toy left on a tread.

Who the law lets install one

This is where the country splits, and the split is by state, sometimes by city. Three patterns exist:

1. The state elevator law reaches private-residence lifts. Installation requires a licensed elevator mechanic, or in a number of states a limited license specific to accessibility or residential lifts, plus a permit and an inspection by the state elevator office or a licensed inspector before the lift may be used.
2. The state law covers lifts in public and commercial buildings and exempts a lift in a single-family dwelling. The licensing and inspection requirement falls away for the house, though a building permit and an electrical permit may still apply.
3. Local rules fill in. A city with its own conveyance code may regulate what the state leaves alone.

You cannot reason your way to which one applies from the device, and the online seller's "easy DIY install" copy is not evidence either way. The answer is one phone call or one web search to your state's elevator or conveyance safety office, asking a precise question: does your elevator law cover a stairway chairlift installed in an owner-occupied single-family home, and if so, what license installs it and is an inspection required before use. Ask the building department the same question about permits. Write the answers and the date on the customer file.

The fork is here. If the answer is that a license is required and your shop does not hold it, you do not install the rail or the carriage, full stop. If the state exempts private residences, you are still deciding whether to do work your insurance may not cover, which is the next section.

Why an unlicensed trade should decline even where it is legal

Three reasons survive the exemption.

Insurance. General liability policies for contractors commonly exclude elevator, conveyance or lift work, or price it separately. Whether yours does is a question for your agent, with the policy in hand, before the job is quoted, not after a claim. This is not legal advice; it is the order in which to ask.

Warranty and parts. Most lift makers sell through authorized dealers and condition the warranty on dealer installation. A kit installed by anyone else may have no warranty and no service path, and the shop that installed it becomes the service path by default when the carriage stops halfway up at nine at night.

The protective functions. A dealer technician carries the procedure to set and prove the limits, the obstruction sensors and the governor against the maker's test. A first-time installer following a booklet does not know what a correct sensor stop looks like, so a sensor that is wired but mis-set passes the installer's test and fails the rider's.

The parts of the job that are yours

Declining the rail does not mean losing the job. A chairlift install generates work that is squarely in the trades, and doing it well is what makes the dealer's install go right.

• The power. Most residential chairlifts run on batteries charged at the stops, fed from a receptacle near the top or bottom of the rail. The maker's installation instructions typically call for a dedicated circuit and specify the receptacle location. NEC 110.3(B), as adopted in your jurisdiction, requires listed equipment to be installed according to its instructions, so where the instructions say dedicated, dedicated is a code requirement, not a preference. NEC Article 620, whose scope includes platform lifts and stairway chairlifts, adds disconnecting-means and wiring rules for lifts wired directly rather than plugged in, which is a vertical platform lift more often than a chairlift.
• The stair itself. The rail bolts through the treads on most models. Loose treads, rotted stringers, a broken nosing or carpet over a soft spot have to be fixed first, because the anchorage is only as good as what it bolts into.
• The landings. A clear landing at the top for the swivel, a light switch reachable from the seat at both ends, and nothing stored on the stairs.
• The handrail. The lift takes some stair width; a second handrail on the wall side often stays useful for a family member walking the stair. See related: Handrails on Both Sides of the Stair.

Worked example: a kit in the hallway

A two-person handyman shop gets a call. The customer is 79, has a straight flight of 13 risers to the bedrooms, and her son bought a battery stairlift online. It arrived in three boxes. He wants the shop to install it Saturday.

First call: the state. The office manager calls the state elevator safety office and asks the question above. In this state the answer is pattern 1: private-residence chairlifts are covered, installation requires a licensed elevator mechanic or holder of the state's limited lift license, and the lift needs an inspection before use. The shop holds neither license. The rail and carriage are out of scope.

Second call: the seller. The son calls the seller, who confirms an authorized installer in the region and states that the warranty requires one. The installer quotes the install and the inspection booking, about three weeks out.

What the shop does. The tech visits with the installer's site requirements and finds three things:

1. The nearest receptacle at the top landing shares a circuit with the bedroom and a space heater. The instructions call for a dedicated circuit within 6 feet of the top rail end. The shop's licensed electrician pulls a permit and runs a new circuit.
2. Treads 4 and 9 rock under foot. The tech re-fastens both to the stringers and checks every tread for movement before the rail goes on.
3. The bottom of the rail will run 14 inches past the last nosing into the hallway, across the path to the bathroom. The installer offers a hinged rail end that folds up when the lift is parked at the top. The tech notes it for the customer so the choice is hers and the son's, not discovered after install.

The shop also leaves its scope line on the invoice so nobody reads the job later as the shop's lift install:

SCOPE NOTE  - stair prep for stairway chairlift
Performed:   new 20 A dedicated circuit, receptacle
             at top landing per lift instructions
             (permit #, inspected ______ )
             treads 4 and 9 re-fastened, all 13
             checked for movement
NOT PERFORMED by this shop:
             rail, carriage, limits, sensors,
             acceptance test - by licensed lift
             installer (name, license # )
State elevator office called (date, person):
             residence chairlifts covered,
             inspection required before use

What would have changed the call. In a pattern 2 state, the license question disappears for this house, but the warranty and insurance questions do not. If the shop's agent confirmed the policy covered the work and the maker would warranty a non-dealer install, the shop could defensibly take it, and the acceptance test of every protective function becomes the shop's job to perform and record. A shop that cannot say how it would prove the footrest obstruction sensor works should not be in that position.

What doing this wrong looks like

The rail goes on, the lift works, and nobody ever tested the sensors. It runs for months. Then a grandchild's shoe on a tread meets a footrest sensor that was never adjusted, and the carriage does not stop. The investigation finds an unlicensed install in a covered state with no inspection, and the shop owns it.

The circuit is shared. The charger and a space heater sit on one 15 A circuit. The breaker trips overnight, the batteries drain, and the customer finds the lift stalled mid-rail in the morning, with her upstairs and the stairs half-blocked.

The fold-up rail end is never mentioned. The rail crosses the hallway, and the first person to trip over it is the frail customer walking to the bathroom at night.

Checking you got the scope right

Before you close the file, the record should answer four questions: what the state and building department said and when, who installed the rail and under what license, what your shop did and under what permit, and when the acceptance inspection happened or is scheduled. If any of the four is blank, the job is not finished, it is just paused.

References

• ASME A18.1, Safety Standard for Platform Lifts and Stairway Chairlifts, in the edition adopted by your state or city elevator code; it binds the installer through the permit and acceptance inspection where adopted.
• ASME A17.1, Safety Code for Elevators and Escalators, for private residence elevators.
• NFPA 70 (National Electrical Code), 110.3(B) and Article 620, as adopted by your jurisdiction.
• Your state elevator or conveyance safety office, for licensing, permit and inspection requirements on private-residence lifts.
• See related: What the ADA Does and Does Not Cover in a Private Home; Grab Bar and Handrail Installation.