How to Buy a Lift

If you are looking to buy a lift, you may find the project a bit daunting at first. However, regardless of whether you are purchasing a lift for your home, workplace, business or public building, the process is the same, and our Lift Buyer’s Guide explains it all in 8 easy steps.

1. Preparing to Buy a Lift
2. Get Advice for Your Lift Project
3. Design Your Lift
4. Get a Price for Your Lift
5. Site & Measurements Check
6. Order Your Lift
7. Delivery & Installation
8. Lift Maintenance & Warranty

If you are a homeowner, make sure to read our blog Homeowner’s Guide to Buying a Lift.

1. Preparing to Buy a Lift

If you are preparing to buy a lift, you know that there are a lot of things to think about. We have created a list of questions for you to help you sort out what is really important so that you can find a lift solution that is perfectly adapted to your needs.

1. Is your lift intended for public, commercial, or private use?
2. How many floors will the lift serve?
3. How many people will the lift need to carry?
4. Will your lift need to accommodate a wheelchair?
5. Where would you like to place the lift?
6. What is the available space for the lift (width x depth)?
7. What is the floor-to-ceiling headroom on the top floor?
8. What style and colour would you like for your lift?
9. How big is your lift budget?

TIP: If you know that you have very little space to install a lift, the smallest size of the Kalea A4 Mini and the Kalea Kosmos fits in a floor space of just 1m2. If you still cannot find find enough room to install a lift inside, our outdoor lift is a great option.

2. Get Advice for Your Lift Project

It is always wise to get professional advice early on when you want to invest in a lift. Contact us to book a free lift consultation with your local Kalea office, or Kalea dealer, no strings attached. Our staff and distributing partners are trained to advise you on the best lift model, configuration and placement to suit your needs.

TIP: If you have a Kalea office or dealer close by, book a face-to-face meeting. If the meeting takes place on the installation site we can check and measure the available space for your lift, if you meet in one of our showrooms you get the opportunity to see and try out our lifts.

3. Design Your Lift

This is the stage in the lift purchasing process when you should not only focus on what you need but also on what you want. If you think that a certain colour would look match your interior design to perfection, or that a glazed shaft would make the room look airy and bright, go for it! A lift is a long-term investment that will last for many years, so the design choices you make will last for a long time too.

Use our design tool, the Kalea Lift Configurator to try out different colours and materials for your lift!

TIP: Also think about what features and options you may need to maximise the comfort of your lift. If your lift is placed in a public or commercial building, certain accessibility standards may apply. Contact your local Kalea office or Kalea dealer for more information.

4. Get a Price for Your Lift

The purchase price of your lift will depend on the lift model, your design choices, and the number of floors the lift needs to serve. To give you a rough idea of the cost of purchasing a lift, a platform or a cabin lift serving 2 floors may have a price ranging from 20 000 € – 45 000 €.

Your Kalea dealer will provide you with a quotation and lift drawings. At the quotation stage, you can still make changes if you need to add or remove features to make the lift specification match the requirements and cost that you have budgeted for.

TIP: Check with your Kalea dealer what is included in the lift price. Transport and installation costs are generally included, but the construction work required to adapt the building for the lift is sometimes quoted separately.

5. Site & Measurements Check

If it has not been done earlier in the process, it is time for the Kalea dealer to pay you a visit to take measurements and check out the installation site. This is a last verification to make sure that everything is as it should be before you get your final lift price and place your order.

Installing a lift generally requires planning permission. Check with your local authorities or talk to your Kalea dealer to find out what administrative measures are necessary.

TIP: Kalea platform lifts are extremely space-efficient and require very little construction work. Our platform lifts are always delivered with a ready-made shaft in steel or glass so that you do not need to build your own lift shaft unless you really want to.

6. Order Your Lift

When you have agreed on a final lift specification and price, the time has come to approve the order and drawings. Your Kalea dealer will send the approved order to our lift factory and the manufacturing will start. Your lift dealer takes care of everything, you do not have to handle any dealings with the factory.

TIP: Make sure that you take the time to double-check the specification and drawings before order approval. When your lift is in production, any changes or additions may add extra charges and increase delivery time.

7. Delivery & Installation

The transport and delivery of your lift are organised by your Kalea dealer, so you do not need to worry about anything. You just need to agree on the dates of delivery and installation. Provided that the building site is properly prepared, a lift by Kalea serving 2 floors will only take 2-4 days to install.

CE Certification & Safety Check

All Kalea lift models are CE type certified by the notified body Liftinstituut and compliant with all relevant European Safety Standards. To ensure that your lift is fully compliant, the installation is always followed by a safety check, performed by your Kalea installer. The signed safety checklist is then sent to our factory and an EU Declaration of Conformity (DoC) for your lift is issued.

Lift Inspection

In most countries, a lift inspection by a third party is required for lifts in public and commercial buildings, and in some countries also for lifts in private homes. The lift inspection is booked by your Kalea dealer. If a lift inspection is required, the lift must not be used before the inspection has been executed.

TIP: If you have a specific deadline for when the lift needs to be ready and in service, please make sure to communicate this clearly to your Kalea dealer early on. This allows them to plan for the safety check and inspection.

8. Lift Maintenance & Warranty

Regular lift maintenance is a must to keep your lift safe and in good working order and it is also a prerequisite for our manufacturer’s warranty (2 years under EU law, variable in other countries). Provided that your lift is properly serviced and cleaned on a regular basis, it can have a lifetime of up to 25-30 years and the lifespan of your lift is important from a sustainability perspective. That is why we always advise you to sign a maintenance contract for your lift.

What is Good Lift Maintenance?

Lift maintenance should always be performed by qualified and trained lift technicians. All Kalea dealers are certified to maintain our lifts and will advise you on how often your lift needs to be serviced. Simply put, the frequency of maintenance visits is determined by how frequently your lift is used. Your Kalea dealer will offer you a lift maintenance contract tailored to your needs.

Lift Cleaning

Cleaning is also an important part of lift maintenance. How often you need to clean your elevator depends on how often it is used and where it is installed (indoor/outdoor, public/private). The cleaning of mechanical parts should always be peformed by a lift technician during service visits, while surface cleaning which does not require special training, should be performed regularly. Please consult the User and Operations Manual of your elevator for more information.

TIP: It is also possible to extend the lifecycle of your lift with continuous upgrades. Talk to your Kalea dealer about what upgrade kits are available for your lift.

Elevator design for purchasing an elevator

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