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Accessibility and elevator contractors get shopped on a published $18,995 pneumatic home elevator installed Facebook special. Those numbers cannot see the shaft or the pit. Two stops of through-floor vacuum tube is a different job from a three-stop hydraulic in a new wood hoistway with a pit, a 240 V feeder, auto doors, battery lowering, and a state inspection.
Open the free home elevator bid calculatorA home elevator is stops and travel, then a drive, then a hoistway. Pneumatic vacuum is a through-floor tube with no shaft. Winding drum is compact cable. Hydraulic is a ram, a pit, and a machine closet. Traction MRL is taller travel without a machine room. Through-floor is two deck cuts. A new wood shaft is framed. Masonry is CMU. Glass is a showpiece.
Homeowners usually start from the pneumatic special, then ask whether “a real elevator” is “a little more.” On the same stops it is not a little more. Hydraulic buys a unit, a pit, and a closet. A new shaft is a carpentry or masonry ticket of its own. The calculator prices all four drives on the house you already measured so you can quote the shaft job instead of matching the pneumatic number on a hydraulic install.
The cheap special is almost always two stops of pneumatic through-floor, acrylic tube, no pit, no feeder, no permit. A three-stop hydraulic in new wood is a different crew week. Matching a published pneumatic number on a shaft job is how a sold install becomes a loss when the hoistway and the extras eat the margin.
A stair lift is a chair on a rail — no shaft, no pit, no cab. A wheelchair ramp is carpentry: rise-to-run and landings. A walk-in tub is alcove plumbing. A walk-in shower is tile, slope, and glass. This prices a home elevator: stops, drive, hoistway, and extras.
Load the wage with payroll burden. Add overhead as a share of direct cost. Then take margin as a share of the customer’s price, not a markup on cost. The walk-away number is total cost. A proposed price under that number loses money before you take anything out of it.
Families also shop a third special: “Mom comes home Friday — same $18,995 on Saturday?” A home elevator unit ships from the factory. Next-day air is a ticket on top of the rail-sized crate a stair-lift uses. Working around someone who just came home is a slower set. Saturday is overtime plus a weekend inspector. See should I expedite a home elevator for hospital discharge — on the cheap special that rush is about $7,812 over weekday, not a courtesy.
They asked for glass after shopping the tube? See acrylic vs glass home elevator cab — on the cheap special that upgrade is about $8,355, not a finish allowance. Customer already bought the unit? See should I install a customer-supplied home elevator — the $4,995 “just set what I bought” number is a different job from the $18,995 installed special.
This page is a walkthrough of the arithmetic in the home elevator bid calculator. It is not an elevator specification, a structural design, a building-code determination, an accessibility determination, or a price you should copy onto a contract.
Charge from stops, travel feet, drive, hoistway, and extras — not a published $18,995 pneumatic special. A two-stop through-floor vacuum tube is a different job from a three-stop hydraulic in a new wood shaft with a pit, a 240 V feeder, auto doors, battery lowering, and a state inspection.
No. Pneumatic vacuum is a through-floor tube with no shaft and no pit. Hydraulic needs a pit and a machine closet. Traction MRL is taller travel without a machine room. Matching a pneumatic special on a hydraulic-plus-shaft job is how a sold install becomes a loss when the hoistway and the extras eat the margin.
Through-floor is a pair of deck cuts. A new wood shaft is framed. Masonry is CMU. Glass is a showpiece. Price all five hoistways on the same house to see the upgrade. A pit, a machine closet, auto doors, battery lowering, a dedicated feeder, and a permit do not live in a published pneumatic dump.
No. A stair lift is a chair on a rail — no shaft, no pit, no cab. A wheelchair ramp is carpentry: rise-to-run and landings. A walk-in tub is alcove plumbing. This prices a home elevator: stops, drive, hoistway, and extras.