Residential Lift Installation

[DaddyJP 1]

Hi Guys,

Rebuilding my inter-terrace house and I am torn between choices thus hoping to gather views and options here from experience folks for consideration:

• Btw to install the lift or not: No old folks staying with us. We do not really need it for perhaps the next 10 to 15 years. To install the lift now, would save on PE and submission cost, while install the lift now would incur recurring maintainence cost. So it is really down to cost consideration, which make more money sense?
• People say lift increase the value of the property... it this really true? between 2 equally good houses, do you choose one because it has a lift? 
• Interested in traction lift. There are so many companies that supply such lift, with a wide price range. How to decide which company to engage? what are the decision factors? How's the quality of China manufactured lift? are they ok? any recommendations

Hope to hear some good inputs soon. Thks.

 

 

[snoozee 98]

26 minutes ago, DaddyJP said:

Hi Guys,

Rebuilding my inter-terrace house and I am torn between choices thus hoping to gather views and options here from experience folks for consideration:

• Btw to install the lift or not: No old folks staying with us. We do not really need it for perhaps the next 10 to 15 years. To install the lift now, would save on PE and submission cost, while install the lift now would incur recurring maintainence cost. So it is really down to cost consideration, which make more money sense?
• People say lift increase the value of the property... it this really true? between 2 equally good houses, do you choose one because it has a lift? 
• Interested in traction lift. There are so many companies that supply such lift, with a wide price range. How to decide which company to engage? what are the decision factors? How's the quality of China manufactured lift? are they ok? any recommendations

Hope to hear some good inputs soon. Thks.

 

 

you need to decide at the start on whether you want a lift as the design of the house has to be worked around the lift shaft.

if you don't do it now, you still need to cater for space to allow for installation in future. not to mention the mess that will happen when you need to hack the floor for the lift to go through. after hacking the floor, you still need to incur cost to fix back the flooring after the lift is installed.

if you have no plans to sell the house in future, then why bother about the resale value? built what you need for your own use now. a lift comes in handy when there is a need to move heavy or bulky things up several floors. also if you have old folks visiting, it would be good for them to use the lift as well if you intend to show them around your house.

the price for traction lifts will range from cheapest (made in china) to most expensive (made in europe). i got a taiwan lift as their technology seems to be the best/stable at the price point which is being offered. try to avoid china lifts for now even though they can be quite cheap. I got a quote of less than 40k for a china lift 3 years ago. tried asking for quotes from hitachi/mitsubishi lift and they can't be bothered with me and just gave me a verbal estimate of 50k over the phone. those big names like schindler or kone will cost you a bomb.

also, pricing aside, you also need to take into account the technical specifications of the lift. the URA envelope control allows for 3.5m as the height of the attic. of cos you can increase this height by building your lower storey with a lower floor to floor height. why I'm highlighting this is that many lifts will specify a overhead of 3.3m or 3.4m which will cause you problems with the lift shaft ceiling if you are building an attic storey with 3.5m floor to roof height. Your lift shaft will need to have a ceiling as well and if the ceiling is 200mm thick, you will have no room to spare if your overhead requirements is 3.3m or 3.4m.

basically I got quotes (install and annual maintenance) and technical specifications from various suppliers before deciding on which supplier to work with.

 

[DaddyJP 1]

18 minutes ago, snoozee said:

you need to decide at the start on whether you want a lift as the design of the house has to be worked around the lift shaft.

if you don't do it now, you still need to cater for space to allow for installation in future. not to mention the mess that will happen when you need to hack the floor for the lift to go through. after hacking the floor, you still need to incur cost to fix back the flooring after the lift is installed.

if you have no plans to sell the house in future, then why bother about the resale value? built what you need for your own use now. a lift comes in handy when there is a need to move heavy or bulky things up several floors. also if you have old folks visiting, it would be good for them to use the lift as well if you intend to show them around your house.

the price for traction lifts will range from cheapest (made in china) to most expensive (made in europe). i got a taiwan lift as their technology seems to be the best/stable at the price point which is being offered. try to avoid china lifts for now even though they can be quite cheap. I got a quote of less than 40k for a china lift 3 years ago. tried asking for quotes from hitachi/mitsubishi lift and they can't be bothered with me and just gave me a verbal estimate of 50k over the phone. those big names like schindler or kone will cost you a bomb.

also, pricing aside, you also need to take into account the technical specifications of the lift. the URA envelope control allows for 3.5m as the height of the attic. of cos you can increase this height by building your lower storey with a lower floor to floor height. why I'm highlighting this is that many lifts will specify a overhead of 3.3m or 3.4m which will cause you problems with the lift shaft ceiling if you are building an attic storey with 3.5m floor to roof height. Your lift shaft will need to have a ceiling as well and if the ceiling is 200mm thick, you will have no room to spare if your overhead requirements is 3.3m or 3.4m.

basically I got quotes (install and annual maintenance) and technical specifications from various suppliers before deciding on which supplier to work with.

 

Thanks for the fast response. I do hv a lift provision designed into the house layout so no worries on that. It is about whether to install now or defer to a later date. 

You have raised very good points for installation. Thanks. 

Do you mind share with me the brand of your lift and the company you hv finally decided to engaged and also how much is the installation of lift and lift shaft and annual maintenence respectively.    

[snoozee 98]

4 minutes ago, DaddyJP said:

Thanks for the fast response. I do hv a lift provision designed into the house layout so no worries on that. It is about whether to install now or defer to a later date. 

You have raised very good points for installation. Thanks. 

Do you mind share with me the brand of your lift and the company you hv finally decided to engaged and also how much is the installation of lift and lift shaft and annual maintenence respectively.    

has your plans been submitted and approved by URA and BCA?

if the above is yes, then it is not a question of whether to install now or not. you MUST install the lift as this is required for TOP. if you do not want to install the lift now, your QPs will need to remove the lift from the plans and resubmit to URA and BCA. if you already had received a WP from URA, then you need to pay the $6420 for the amendment.

normally lift will be part of the construction cost and parked under the main contractor. if you want to provide this yourself, you need to work out something with your main contractor. usually there is a clause in construction contracts which allows the main contractor to collect a percentage in fees as "profit in attendance" for works done by nominated subcons. so assuming your lift costs 60k and your main contractor's profit in attendance is 10 percent, it means you need to pay your main contractor 6k to allow your lift subcon to go on site to install the lift.

I shan't share my lift contractor as the boss gave me a lot of problems during the construction. annual maintenance is about 2k. other companies which i gotten a quote has similar annual maintenance cost ranging between 2k and 3k. mine is a concreate lift shaft so no maintenance needed. the lift company performs routine servicing every month and feedback from the workers is that the lift model I got is quite reliable and the company had actually installed more than 500 of such lifts in Singapore.

[DaddyJP 1]

I am in the process of doing the submission to URA/BCA. The provision is for the space only.

I hv approached a few companies. Most are China made lift. The only Europe made lift cost about $77k exclude shaft. Maintenance costs is $3k with increment of $50 every year.

Yet to find a Taiwan made lift. Can you share the brand? PM me if you hv concern. Appreciated.

[snoozee 98]

34 minutes ago, DaddyJP said:

I am in the process of doing the submission to URA/BCA. The provision is for the space only.

I hv approached a few companies. Most are China made lift. The only Europe made lift cost about $77k exclude shaft. Maintenance costs is $3k with increment of $50 every year.

Yet to find a Taiwan made lift. Can you share the brand? PM me if you hv concern. Appreciated.

if your plans indicate a lift and lift shaft, you will need to put in the lift for TOP. if you provision for space, then there shouldn't be any indication of lift and lift shaft and that area should just be a normal floor slab without walls, etc. your architect should know about this. do note that if you choose to add the lift after you obtain WP, you also will need to resubmit again and pay the full fees to URA.

there's a few taiwan lift suppliers in Singapore. ken-jo, eletec, VM elevators, lift works. there's another company Gylet but i'm not sure where they source their lifts from.

normally lift shaft is main contractor's scope of work. unless you want glass lift shaft then the lift supplier may get their own contractor to built the shaft.

[DaddyJP 1]

Thanks much for all the information. 

Much clearer now.

[DaddyJP 1]

Hi,

The space and headroom available at the top floor has limited my choice to platform lift. Managed to find 2 type of platform lift (1) driven by motor, lead screw and guides (2) hydraulic pressure by oil and pump. Would like to seek options of the forum which is better. 

Thanks much!

[snoozee 98]

8 hours ago, DaddyJP said:

Hi,

The space and headroom available at the top floor has limited my choice to platform lift. Managed to find 2 type of platform lift (1) driven by motor, lead screw and guides (2) hydraulic pressure by oil and pump. Would like to seek options of the forum which is better. 

Thanks much!

how much more overhead do you need? if 10 or 20cm, can get your architect to write in for waiver such that only your lift shaft is outside the envelope. URA will approve on a case by case basis.

just FYI, even though the envelope control guidelines indicated a 45 degrees pitch (front and back) for the attic, i've seen a house which has a part (about 2m wide) of the front attic protruding out of the envelope such that the whole part is actually flat and at the same height of the main flat roof.

platform lifts are slow. also there is no lift car for platform lift so if you have young children at home, it would be a bit dangerous as their fingers or toes may get caught in the gap between the platform and the lift shaft.

hydraulic lifts were known to be prone to leakage after years of usage. not sure whether this is still the case nowadays but i didn't want to take the chance of leaks down the road.

talk to the lift suppliers on what is the minimum overhead required. if the catalogue states 3500, sometimes they can allow for something lower like 3350 or 3400. so with a slightly reduced overhead, you can have your lift shaft and ceiling protruding out of the envelope. assuming your shaft ceiling needs 200mm thick concrete ceiling, after factoring in 100mm for the hoisting hook (if you need one), you will just be 200mm outside the envelope if your minimum overhead is 3400. your architect should know how to deal with this kind of situation unless he/she is not experience enough.

[DaddyJP 1]

Hi Snoozee,

Thanks for the fast response and valuable inputs.

Most of the lift supplies mentioned the space allocated (1700x1500) and the head room is insufficient (3300). If traction lift is required, will need to be customised to my specification which will be expensive. Thus I hv dropped this option, only looking out for Platform lift.

I shared your concern about the hydraulic type. What about the motor, lead screw and guides driven kind of platform lift. Found brands such as Cebis and Aritco. Any experiences with them?

Thanks much!

[snoozee 98]

my lift shaft is 1550 x 1500. in fact most of the suppliers i contacted are ok with this size. even one of the supplier's i contacted had a specification of min overhead requirement of 3300. how come your architect designed the attic level to be so low? like i mentioned, your lift shaft can protrude out of the envelope by a bit as long as URA approves it.

no experience on platform lifts but my wife's auntie has one installed in her house (retrofit) and it's just slow. also have to be careful of the gap at the sides. came across Aritco when i was researching on lifts some years ago but never heard of the other company.

[DaddyJP 1]

Hi Snoozee, Finally decided to go with Aritco. Like its design, although it is slow. Thanks for the replies and advices. 👍

[SodaLuvyou 0]

To tell you the truth, if a building is more than five stories high, anyone would choose the elevator. I'm not an old lady, I'm not pregnant, and I have no health problems, but an elevator helps to be faster, and I don't want to climb many stairs after a long and stressful day at work. That's why it's better to build an elevator in my house. My friend says this company https://hinchong.com/ is great and reliable in terms of elevator inspection and maintenance, I didn't ask about the building but you can find out more information on their website. Analyze everything before you make your choice and I hope my comment was helpful.

Edited June 24, 2022 by SodaLuvyou

[leechaorui 2]

On 3/30/2021 at 3:29 PM, snoozee said:

you need to decide at the start on whether you want a lift as the design of the house has to be worked around the lift shaft.

if you don't do it now, you still need to cater for space to allow for installation in future. not to mention the mess that will happen when you need to hack the floor for the lift to go through. after hacking the floor, you still need to incur cost to fix back the flooring after the lift is installed.

if you have no plans to sell the house in future, then why bother about the resale value? built what you need for your own use now. a lift comes in handy when there is a need to move heavy or bulky things up several floors. also if you have old folks visiting, it would be good for them to use the lift as well if you intend to show them around your house.

the price for traction lifts will range from cheapest (made in china) to most expensive (made in europe). i got a taiwan lift as their technology seems to be the best/stable at the price point which is being offered. try to avoid china lifts for now even though they can be quite cheap. I got a quote of less than 40k for a china lift 3 years ago. tried asking for quotes from hitachi/mitsubishi lift and they can't be bothered with me and just gave me a verbal estimate of 50k over the phone. those big names like schindler or kone will cost you a bomb.

also, pricing aside, you also need to take into account the technical specifications of the lift. the URA envelope control allows for 3.5m as the height of the attic. of cos you can increase this height by building your lower storey with a lower floor to floor height. why I'm highlighting this is that many lifts will specify a overhead of 3.3m or 3.4m which will cause you problems with the lift shaft ceiling if you are building an attic storey with 3.5m floor to roof height. Your lift shaft will need to have a ceiling as well and if the ceiling is 200mm thick, you will have no room to spare if your overhead requirements is 3.3m or 3.4m.

basically I got quotes (install and annual maintenance) and technical specifications from various suppliers before deciding on which supplier to work with.

 

Hi Snooze, for a 3.5 storey building that maximise the height permissible by building control authority, does it mean that the attic floor cannot be served by lift, given that there is an overhead requirement of between 3.4m?  How much floor space is required to be set aside for the development of the lift (assuming the lift size mirrors those of HDB flats). 

[snoozee 98]

2 hours ago, leechaorui said:

Hi Snooze, for a 3.5 storey building that maximise the height permissible by building control authority, does it mean that the attic floor cannot be served by lift, given that there is an overhead requirement of between 3.4m?  How much floor space is required to be set aside for the development of the lift (assuming the lift size mirrors those of HDB flats). 

Write in to URA to enquiry on how much allowance they will allow for the lift core to exceed the building envelope. For PV panels, anything below 1m above the envelope is allowed. So chances are URA will allow for the lift core to exceed the envelope by maybe 500mm. 
Different lift suppliers have different overhead requirements. For mine, the requirement is 3.2m if I didn’t remember wrongly. 
HDB lifts are HUGE compared to what is needed for landed housings. Landed houses usually just need a 3 to 5 pax max lift which is big enough for a wheelchair and additional pax together. Lift core dimensions again differ between suppliers. But a safe gauge will be at least 1.6m by 1.6m INTERNAL clearance. Again check with lift supplier to confirm exact requirements. There is also the issue of lift pit as well so this is an additional depth which needs to be excavated below the ground level. Too deep a pit (more than 1.5m) and you will require ERSS which will add on to your cost.