If you are trying to work out what a stairlift will cost, there is one question that matters more than all the others put together: does your staircase turn?
Everything else is detail. Capacity, upholstery, remote controls, powered swivel: those move the number a little. Straight versus curved moves it a lot, and it decides how long you wait.
How to tell which one you have
Stand at the bottom and look up. If you can see the top landing and the flight runs in one unbroken line with no turn, no bend and no intermediate landing, you have a straight staircase.
If there is a turn anywhere, even a single winder step at the top, it is a curved staircase as far as the rail is concerned. This surprises people. A staircase that turns just once at the very top is not “mostly straight.” The rail has to follow the turn, so it has to be made for your stairs.
What a straight lift involves
The rail is cut from stock to your measurement. We hold these, which is why the timeline is measured in hours rather than weeks. A straight install is typically two to four hours in a single visit, and you use the lift the same day.
The rail fixes to the stair treads rather than the wall. That matters more than most people expect: the wall is untouched, the fasteners leave small holes in the treads that fill easily, and the whole thing comes back off if it is ever removed.
Models we fit most often on a straight flight include the Bruno Elan SRE-5000 at 300 lb capacity, the Bruno Elite SRE-2010 at 400 lb, and the Harmar SL600HD at 600 lb where capacity is the deciding factor.
What a curved lift involves
The rail is manufactured to measurements taken from your actual staircase. Harmar measures the Helix CSL500 using a calibrated camera kit for digital accuracy. Bruno builds the Elite Curve CRE-2110 rail by hand in Wisconsin.
That manufacturing takes three to five weeks. Then the installation itself is a single day once the rail arrives.
We say this plainly because it is the most common place people get misled: anybody promising you a curved stairlift next week is describing a straight one. There is no stock curved rail, because there is no stock staircase.
Could two straight lifts work instead?
Sometimes, and it is worth asking. If your staircase has a proper landing with room to stand and turn, two straight lifts can cost meaningfully less than one curved rail.
The catch is that it means getting off one lift and onto another, halfway up. For somebody with good balance and reasonable standing tolerance, that is fine. For somebody who is unsteady on their feet or transfers with difficulty, it is a bad idea, and we will tell you so rather than take the cheaper sale.
What this means in Georgia
Georgia is one of the most heavily regulated states in the country for this equipment. Stairlifts, vertical platform lifts and elevators all fall under state regulation, and permits run through the Office of Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner rather than your county.
We hold that licensing in our own name rather than borrowing it from a subcontractor, and we file the paperwork. It is worth asking any company quoting you in Georgia to show you theirs, because here it is a legal requirement rather than a nice credential to have.
The short version
- Straight: rail from stock, two to four hours, one visit, lowest cost.
- Curved: rail made for your staircase, three to five weeks, then one day to fit.
- One turn anywhere makes it curved, including a single winder at the top.
If you are not sure which you have, send us a photograph taken from the bottom of the stairs looking up. That is usually enough for us to tell you before anybody comes out.
Manufacturer detail if you want to read further: Bruno publishes specifications for its straight stairlift range, and Harmar publishes the Pinnacle SL600 and SL600HD. We are an authorized dealer for both.
What a turn does to the survey
On a straight flight the survey is quick: rise, run, width, where the power is, where the lift parks at each end. On a curved flight it is the whole job. Every turn, every landing, the pitch of each section and the precise geometry of the newel post all go into a rail that gets built once.
Harmar measures the Helix with a calibrated camera kit rather than a tape, because a quarter inch of error compounds over a turn. Bruno hand-builds the Elite Curve rail in Wisconsin from the measurements we send. Neither is adjustable on site in any meaningful way, which is why the survey has to be right the first time.
Questions to ask before you order either one
- What is the rated capacity, and how was my weight arrived at? An estimate is not good enough. Lifts run 300 lb to 600 lb.
- Which side is the rail on, and why that side? The answer should be about the person’s transfer, not the installer’s convenience.
- Where does it park at each end? This decides whether it blocks a doorway for the next ten years.
- Is there a folding rail at the bottom? Relevant when a door opens across the foot of the stairs.
- Who services it, and are they the ones installing it?
Equipment you do not need a survey for
If the stairs are manageable and the real difficulty is elsewhere, plenty of what helps can simply be bought and delivered. Walkers, rollators, transport chairs, bathroom safety, threshold ramps. Our online shop ships those free, and no survey is involved.
We mention that on a stairlift page deliberately. Somebody researching a twelve thousand dollar lift occasionally needs a two hundred dollar answer, and we would rather they found it here.