An elevated experience: the lift specialists making homes more accessible

When planning a forever home, it’s important to design for both the lifestyle of the client now, and the lifestyle they will have in the future. While mobility may not be an issue today, there will come a time when navigating a staircase is a challenge.

“In our market, a lot of people are building their forever home, and they’re planning to live there for the rest of their life. They’re thinking about what will happen if they need a knee replacement, or they get arthritis, and stairs become awkward — so they’ll put in a lift,” says Allan Fullerton of Powerglide Elevators.

Fullerton is an expert in boutique elevators, designing and manufacturing his first lift with his father in 2003. “We decided to make a lift for my parents' house because we couldn’t find anything suitable on the market. We thought we knew how to make a lift, so we made one, and it was quite good. From there, one of my dad’s friends wanted one, and then another friend wanted one, and so on, and we realised there was a market for it.”

The Fullertons launched Powerglide Elevators in 2005, with the aim to make high-quality elevators widely accessible to the New Zealand market. All Powerglide Elevators are designed and manufactured in their Tauranga factory, and personalised to meet the unique requirements of each build.

“When you’re designing a home, you have very specific criteria for what it should look like, so we decided to make a lift that can look like anything you want. There are a few constraints around safety, so whatever we design has to be done in a way that is safe and can be disassembled if we need to do any work on it, but we can do anything with the lift car within those constraints,” Fullerton explains.

The main considerations that need to be made when designing to accommodate a lift are location and size. “It’s important that the lift doors are opening into common areas and not into bedrooms,” Fullerton says. If the homeowner is a wheelchair user, or they want to plan for a wheelchair in the future, lift car, shaft, and doorway width all need to be designed to suit.

To ensure the design process runs smoothly, Fullerton recommends engaging Powerglide early in the design phase.

“The earlier the better, even if the architect simply draws a space for the shaft on the plans and then reaches out to us. We can discuss options and pricing, and advise on the best placement for the lift to avoid wasting money in the long run.”

Powerglide also designs elevators for medium density residential projects up to four storeys — touting a no maintenance hydraulic system that guarantees significantly lower operating costs compared to commercial lifts.

“Our system doesn’t have any ropes or any parts that need grease, which means they don’t need regular maintenance. In some cases, that can be thousands of dollars a year difference in operating costs.”

When it comes to installation, Powerglide takes care of that too, with their own dedicated team of in-house installers.

“Because we make the lift to measure, we'll go in at about the same time as the electricians to measure up, run some wires, and talk to the builder about a few things. And then, once the house is basically finished, our installers will come in with the finished lift.

“The lift arrives flat packed, and the installers bring it in through the ground floor of the house, bolt it all together, hang up the wiring, test it, and then leave a fully commissioned and ready to use lift.”

Learn more about Powerglide Elevators.