Tips and Tricks for Installing an Outdoor Wheelchair Lift

Movement and transportation is a very normal phenomenon that we all make way with, with improvement in technology and its betterment, rising awareness among people has brought innovation and creativity to the frontline.

While staircases are commonly used for moving up and down a building, with age and certain medical conditions sometimes traveling or carrying people around with the help of a staircase is not the right option, therefore, lifts are used for indoor and outdoor convenience of movement. In this article, we will discuss the tips and tricks for installing an outdoor wheelchair lift.

What is an outdoor wheelchair lift?

An outdoor wheelchair lift is an elevated porch or a platform that adds ease of movement and provides safe ground that aids entry and exit of a residential place or a public place such as a religious area or other such building.

An outdoor wheelchair lift not only helps people with the right mobile conditions in movement but also people with certain health or medical conditions or the ones who have recently encountered an accident to walk with ease in and out of the building.

The lifts are made with special material designed to withstand harsh weather conditions outside the building or in other words the dynamic external environment.

Tips and tricks for installing an outdoor wheelchair lift:

1. Planning ahead of time:

The need for an outdoor wheelchair lift is very true, emergency situations can arise anytime due to which such facility is a requisite, accidents and health conditions can not be predicted ahead of time, thus, one needs to research about the lift and plan in time for its installation.

The installation of an outdoor wheelchair lift can take around three to five weeks to complete, thus, to cover this long waiting period one needs to start the process of installation timely.

2. Make the selections:

• There are many choices that one needs to make while choosing an outdoor wheelchair lift, such as choosing the location where the lift needs to be installed, the rationale behind this is to understand the area of the house which is most occupied and the one which requires the use of the lift the most- usually it is the entrance of the house.

• Determine the location where the wheelchair-using member of the family finds most difficulty in having access to.
• Arrangements should be made that the upper-level grounding is sturdy and large enough to provide sufficient space for the wheelchair to climb up the ground and move towards the door.
• The landing of the mounting surface should be solid and it should be connected with a cord that connects the lift to electricity.

3. Choose the other specifications:

One needs to make other decisions while selecting an outdoor wheelchair lift as well such as selecting the configurations of the lift as:

• choosing the maximum travel height of the lift,
• understanding the infrastructure of the building,
• choosing the right level of height for the installation, and making sure that the inclined slope of the lift is such that it gives remote and independent access to the disabled or the user of the wheelchair lift,
• choosing the configuration such as the usage of the lift,
• the design of the lift,
• addressing the space requirement of the lift,
• the regular and uninterrupted supply of electricity in the area where a wheelchair lift has to be installed and other such things.

The lifts can be customized before ordering them, but it is not possible once the order has been placed.

4. Meet the desired codes:

After analyzing your needs and expectations from the lift, one needs to understand the safety codes and requirements that every vertical outdoor wheelchair lift needs to meet, this ensures that the local authorities are well informed of the safety specifications of the residential lift and it has been approved by them for installation.

5. Before installation work:

• Just before installation of the outdoor wheelchair lift, one needs to make preparations such as making available a sturdy and a hard surface as a base on which the lift has to be placed, the weight of a wheelchair lift is so much that in order to install it, one needs to construct a preferably concrete or a wooden base.
• After the construction of this base, one needs to drain all the water pooling in that area, because after the installation of the wheelchair lift there is a tendency of water stagnation beneath the lift, thus, to prevent such a situation, a proper drainage system must be installed.

• Before installing the lift, one must check the unit for any damage.

These are the certain tips and tricks that will help a person in installing an outdoor wheelchair lift. Outdoor wheelchair lifts are so helpful that they can go up to a maximum limit of an entire floor or an entire building, provided that one makes the right choices in choosing it. Besides this, one must make sure that it fits the needs of your mobile device and ensures safety options and landing gates at the surface of the landing itself.