An important aspect of residential home design is taking into account our clients current and future needs. This includes finding out if an elevator is something required now or will be in the future.
If you are starting from scratch and designing a brand new house, an elevator can be planned for easily. You have two options: you might build your house with the elevator installed from the beginning or a designated space can be planned into the house now so that in 10 or
more years the elevator can be installed
easily. Either way, you can work with your architect to find an ideal location for the elevator shaft in the house.
You might be in the situation where you need to add an elevator to your existing home. This requires working with your architect to decide the best place for the elevator shaft. Since the shaft must line up on each level of your home there are a few questions to think about. Do you already have an ideal location to add an elevator? Which spaces in your home can be altered to work around the best shaft location? You might also wonder how exactly an elevator can be installed into your existing home.
The company Adapted Home & Business, out of Portland, has put together a video series about an elevator retrofit. They have made four short, two-minute videos where they describe how they install a residential elevator into an existing home. Here is the first video.
Let us help you create a building to serve your needs at www.mcleodarchitect.com.
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