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Acrylic vs glass home elevator cab

Owners shop the $18,995 pneumatic home elevator installed special, then ask: “Can we do glass instead of the tube?” That sounds like a finish upgrade. It is a cab invoice and more set hours. The cheap special is an acrylic through-floor tube. Glass is a different ticket on the same house.

Open the free home elevator bid calculator

The tube is not a glass cab

On a typical two-stop through-floor cheap special — $52 wage, 32% burden, 15% overhead, 20% target margin, ten miles — acrylic bids $28,108.09 (walk-away $22,486.47). A standard enclosed cab adds $2,834.17. Wood-panel adds $5,044.01. Glass adds $8,354.52 and bids $36,462.61 (walk-away $29,170.09). Those add-ons are the cab kits. They do not change the drive or the shaft.

CabHoursBidvs acrylic
Acrylic / vacuum tube50.4 h$28,108.09—
Standard enclosed52.9 h$30,942.27+$2,834.17
Wood-panel54.9 h$33,152.11+$5,044.01
Glass cab56.4 h$36,462.61+$8,354.52

Matching the acrylic number loses the cab ticket

If they already shopped the tube and you send the acrylic $28,108.09 on a glass-cab ask, you sit $1,062.00 under the glass walk-away of $29,170.09. Matching the published $18,995 pneumatic dump on that glass job loses about $10,175. The same glass add-on ($8,354.52) shows up on a hydraulic shaft house — the cab ticket does not shrink because the shaft got more expensive.

How to use the comparison

Open the home elevator bid calculator, enter the house you are standing in, and read the four-cab table. It uses starting cab kits so a typed acrylic invoice does not leak into the glass row. Nothing is uploaded.

This is the same arithmetic as how much to charge to install a home elevator. Customer already bought the unit? See should I install a customer-supplied home elevator. Hospital discharge this week? See should I expedite a home elevator for hospital discharge. It is not an elevator specification, a structural design, a building-code determination, or a catalog — it is the walk-away number on each cab.

Common questions

Is an acrylic vacuum-tube cab the same bid as a glass home elevator cab?

No. The cheap special is an acrylic through-floor tube. A glass cab is more hours and a cab invoice. On a typical two-stop pneumatic cheap special — $52 wage, 32% burden, 15% overhead, 20% target margin — acrylic bids about $28,108. Glass on the same house bids about $36,463, an $8,355 upgrade.

How much extra should I charge for a glass home elevator cab?

Using the calculator's starting cab kits, glass adds about $8,355 to the installed bid over acrylic on the same house. A standard enclosed cab adds about $2,834. Wood-panel adds about $5,044. Those add-ons are the cab ticket — they do not change the shaft or the drive.

What happens if I match the acrylic price on a glass-cab ask?

You eat the cab invoice and the extra set hours. Matching the $28,108 acrylic bid on a glass-cab cheap special sits about $1,062 under the glass walk-away of $29,170. Matching the published $18,995 pneumatic dump on that glass job loses about $10,175.