People are often more nervous about installation day than about the decision itself. They picture drilling, mess, and a house full of contractors.

It is a good deal less dramatic than that.

How long it takes

A straight stairlift is typically two to four hours, start to finish, in a single visit. You use it the same day.

A curved stairlift is one day, once the rail has been manufactured. That manufacturing takes three to five weeks before the install date exists at all.

What the technicians actually do

Set up. Dust sheets down, route from the door to the stairs protected. The equipment comes in in pieces.

Fix the rail. The rail sits on brackets fixed into the stair treads, not the wall. This is the part that surprises people who expect wall damage. There is drilling, into the treads, and it is not loud or lengthy.

Mount the carriage and seat. The drive unit goes onto the rail, then the seat, arms and footrest.

Power and charging points. These lifts run on batteries that charge at parking points, which is why they still work in an outage. They plug into an ordinary outlet.

Set the limits and test. Travel limits, safety edges, obstruction sensors, the seat swivel at the top landing. Then it is run repeatedly, loaded, and checked.

What you should be shown before they leave

This is the part to hold your installer to, whoever you use:

How to operate it, and how to use the two remote controls from either end.
How the swivel seat works and how it locks.
What happens in a power cut, and how the manual lowering method works.
The seat belt.
What the fault indicators mean and who to call.

Have whoever will actually use it drive it up and down while the technician is still there. Not the family member arranging it: the person who will use it four times a day.

Permits and inspection in Georgia

Georgia regulates stairlifts, platform lifts and elevators at state level. Permits and inspections run through the Office of Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner rather than your county, and licensed installation is a legal requirement rather than a preference.

We hold that licensing in our own name and we file the paperwork. Ask any company working in Georgia to show you theirs.

What to do beforehand

Very little. Clear the stairs and the landing at both ends, move anything breakable off the route from the front door, and make sure there is somewhere to park. That is genuinely it.

Harmar notes that a qualified dealer should install and service its products; their SL600HD page says so directly. Bruno takes the same position.

Who should be in the house

The person who will actually use the lift, if at all possible. Not only the family member arranging it.

There is a handover at the end where the technician demonstrates the controls, the swivel, the seat belt and the manual lowering method, and that handover is worth far more when the person doing the learning is the person who will use it four times a day. We have come back to houses where the lift was working perfectly and nobody had shown the user how the swivel unlocked.

What can turn a half day into a return visit

No outlet within reach of a parking point. Usually found at survey, occasionally not.
Open risers with nothing solid to fix into. Fixable, but not on the same day.
A carpet that was about to be replaced. Do the flooring first, always.
A door at the foot of the stairs. A hinged rail section solves it, and it has to be ordered with the lift rather than added later.

What it sounds like and what it leaves behind

Drilling into treads, for a few minutes at a time, and a drill driver for the rest. It is quieter than a kitchen fit and shorter than a carpet fit.

Afterwards there are small fixing holes in the treads and nothing on the walls. When a lift is removed later those holes fill easily. We have taken lifts out of houses going on the market and the stairs underneath were fine.

Licensed installation, and why it is not optional here

Georgia regulates stairlifts, platform lifts and elevators at state level through the Office of Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner. Licensed installation and inspection are legal requirements, not preferences, and we hold that licensing in our own name rather than borrowing it.

Both manufacturers we carry take the same position for their own reasons. Harmar states directly on the SL600HD page that a qualified dealer should install and service its products, and Bruno sells only through authorized dealers.

The first week

Use it more than you think you need to. The batteries charge at the parking points, so leaving the lift parked at an end is how it stays charged. Read the fault indicator meanings once while you do not need them. And if anything sounds different in the first fortnight, call us then rather than living with it.

Our service page covers what happens afterward, including on equipment we did not sell.

Curved installs run differently

With a curved rail the day is longer and the sequence changes. Rail sections arrive matched to the survey and go together in order, joints are set and checked, and the carriage is commissioned across every turn rather than along a single run.

It is still one day once the rail has landed. What it is not is a job that can be brought forward, because the rail was manufactured for your staircase over the preceding three to five weeks. Our curved stairlift page explains why that lead time is real.

After the handover

You should be left with the operating instructions, the warranty terms, the model and serial number, and a number to call. Keep the serial number somewhere findable, because it is the first thing any service department asks for.

If you also need bathroom safety, a threshold ramp or a rollator while somebody is recovering, those ship free from our online shop rather than waiting on another visit.