A mews rebuilt around a lift
When its owners rebuilt a two-storey mews as a three-storey home, they added a circular lift from the ground to the top floor, to future-proof it.
Reported by The Irish Times, February 2023.
The opportunity
The house you chose
A home that keeps every floor open to you.
The neighbours you know. The view from the bedroom window. The kitchen where the family still gathers. Most of us would rather shape a home around how we live than leave it.
A home lift is one way to do that. Fitted well, it sits in a living room, a hall or the space beside the stairs, and it simply makes moving between floors a choice rather than a climb.
The question
Stairs are part of every day.
Most Irish houses put the bedrooms and the bathroom upstairs. That works for years, and it’s worth thinking about early, while every option is still open.
- Every day, many timesBedtime, the bathroom, a forgotten phone: the stairs are the most-used route in the house.
- Carrying thingsLaundry, shopping and luggage all travel between floors.
- Everyone who visitsParents, grandparents and friends come too, and not everyone finds stairs easy.
- Thinking aheadPlanning for change early usually means more choice, and less disruption, later.
The possibility
Four ways up.
Home lifts range from a compact car that rises through a neat opening in the ceiling to a glass lift designed to be seen. Sometimes the right answer isn’t a lift at all.
Compare the approaches
What each one asks of your house.
The same questions for each: space, the floor opening, building work, power, installation, upkeep and wheelchair use. Points marked Maker claim are what manufacturers say about their own products; we haven’t independently tested them.
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Compact through-floor lift
A small car travels between two floors through an opening cut in the ceiling. When it’s upstairs, the room below is clear again.
- Space
- The smallest footprint of the lift types; often placed in a corner, a hall or beside the stairs.
- Floor opening
- Yes: a neat aperture through the ceiling and the floor above.
- Building work
- Altering the floor joists around the opening. Many models need no shaft, pit or machine room. Maker claim
- Power
- Some run from an ordinary socket; others need their own supply. Maker claim
- Installation
- Makers describe one to a few days, once the opening is prepared. Maker claim
- Upkeep
- Regular servicing; ask how it behaves in a power cut.
- Wheelchair
- Larger versions take a wheelchair; smaller ones carry one or two people standing.
- Cost
- Usually the least expensive kind of home lift, according to published price guides.
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Enclosed home lift
A cabin that travels inside its own enclosure or a built shaft, like a small passenger lift.
- Space
- More floor area than a compact lift, on every floor it serves.
- Floor opening
- Yes, at each floor.
- Building work
- More substantial. Depending on the drive, some need a shallow pit or space for machinery: ask.
- Power
- Usually a dedicated electrical supply.
- Installation
- Several days for the lift, plus the builder’s work around it.
- Upkeep
- Makers recommend a service contract. Maker claim
- Wheelchair
- Many cabin sizes take a wheelchair.
- Cost
- Typically more than a compact through-floor lift; some serve more than two floors.
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Glass or design-led lift
A lift chosen to be seen: glazed walls, slim framing, part of the interior rather than hidden from it.
- Space
- Similar to an enclosed lift. Some tube-shaped designs are very compact but carry one person. Maker claim
- Floor opening
- Yes, at each floor.
- Building work
- As an enclosed lift. Some air-driven (vacuum) designs stand on the existing floor without a pit. Maker claim
- Power
- Usually a dedicated electrical supply.
- Installation
- Several days, plus the finishing around the glass at each floor.
- Upkeep
- Servicing, plus keeping the glass clean.
- Wheelchair
- Depends on the model; check the platform size.
- Cost
- Usually towards the top of the range. Which brands are installed in Ireland isn’t verified here.
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Alternatives
Where a lift doesn’t suit the house, or isn’t needed, these are often the better answer.
- Stairlift
- A seat that rides a rail on the existing stairs. No floor opening; you sit and transfer at each end.
- Platform lift
- For a short rise: a few steps, a split level or the front door. Many take a wheelchair.
- Ground-floor living
- A bedroom and bathroom downstairs, within the house or in an extension.
- Cost
- A stairlift usually costs far less than a home lift; an extension can cost more.
Illustrative drawings by PlotNua, not to scale and not designs for any house. Which approach suits a home depends on its layout, structure and the people who live there.
What exists today
Already in Irish homes.
Home lifts are made, sold and installed on the island of Ireland, and Ireland’s housing adaptation grants name through-floor lifts among the works they can fund. Some owners plan for one long before they need it.
Irish homes with lifts
Space left for later
When a new storey was added to a house first bought as a home for a parent, the owner had space left for a lift, in case the house later became a retirement home.
Reported by The Irish Times.
New homes designed around one
Two new three-storey-over-basement houses were laid out around a lift: the lift, their creator said, inspired the layout.
Reported by The Irish Times.
Planning for a lift doesn’t mean fitting one now. It can be as simple as leaving the right space when you renovate.
Homes are described from published property coverage, checked on 4 November 2026. No photographs of them are shown, and nothing here suggests any connection with PlotNua.
The practicalities
Before anything is fitted.
Not every home can take a lift, and the right one depends on the house. What the rules require is kept apart from practical guidance.
Retrofitting a lift
What a lift asks of an existing house.
A survey of your house comes first. These are the questions it should answer.
What the rules require
Planning, structure, fire safety, electrics and product safety, each with its source below.
Planning
Usually no permission inside, but not always
Works that affect only the interior of a house are generally exempted development. That doesn’t apply automatically to a protected structure, and a lift shaft on the outside of a house, or anything that changes how it looks, needs its own planning assessment. A Section 5 declaration from your local authority can give a formal answer.
Structure
The floor opening is structural work
Cutting an opening through a floor means altering the joists that carry it. Have it designed by a structural engineer, or the installer’s engineer, and keep the paperwork with the house.
Fire safety
Keeping floors and the stairs protected
Building Regulations apply to material alterations to a house. Fire-safety guidance for houses expects openings in fire-separating construction to be protected, and, where a floor is more than 4.5 metres above ground, usually expects the stairs to be a protected escape route. How a lift opening is handled depends on the house: ask a competent professional to design and confirm it.
Electrics
A registered electrician
Where the lift needs a new circuit or other electrical work, use a Registered Electrical Contractor and get the completion certificate.
Product safety
CE marked, with its paperwork
Most home lifts travel slowly enough to be covered by EU machinery law, with a harmonised safety standard for lifting platforms (EN 81-41). Ask for the lift’s EU declaration of conformity. From 20 January 2027 the new EU Machinery Regulation applies to new machinery placed on the market.
Grants
Means-tested, approved first
Council grants can help with a stairlift or a through-floor lift where it’s needed by an older or disabled person. They are means-tested, and a grant must be approved before any work begins. Details are below.
Housing Adaptation Grant for Disabled People
Up to €40,000
or 100% of the approved cost, whichever is less
- For a disabled person who needs the works, or a homeowner applying for a disabled member of the household.
- The works it lists include a stair lift or a through-floor lift.
- The full rate applies to household incomes up to €37,500, tapering to 30% between €62,501 and €75,000. No grant above €75,000.
- For a house less than 12 months old the maximum is €20,000.
- Your local authority may ask for an occupational therapist’s assessment.
- Council tenants use a separate scheme run by their council.
Mobility Aids Grant
Up to €8,000
for basic works to address mobility needs
- For households with an income of up to €37,500.
- Councils list works such as grab rails, ramps, accessible showers and stairlifts.
- One application form covers the housing adaptation grants; apply to your local authority.
- The application form says the grants don’t cover VAT. Revenue may refund VAT on some aids for people with disabilities, and names stairlifts; renovation works generally don’t qualify, and other items are assessed case by case.
Grant figures are from gov.ie and local authority pages, checked on 4 November 2026. Eligibility is decided by your local authority; check its current rules before you plan any work.
Practical guidance
Questions for you and your installer. The answers vary with every house.
Where it goesFinding the right spot
A lift needs a place where it arrives somewhere useful on both floors: often a corner of a living room below a bedroom or landing, a hall, or the void beside a turning staircase. Pipes, wiring and joists in the floor above all shape where it can go.
AccessibilitySizing it for the people who’ll use it
Check the platform size against any wheelchair or walking aid actually in use, how the doors open at each floor, and the controls. Where a grant is involved, an occupational therapist’s assessment helps match the lift to the person.
InstallationWhat the work involves
Expect a survey, then the builder’s work for the opening and any electrics, then the lift itself and the making good of ceilings and floors. Ask who is responsible for each part, and who certifies it.
MaintenanceLooking after it
A lift needs regular servicing for as long as it’s in use. Ask how often, what it costs, how quickly a breakdown is answered, what the warranty covers and what happens in a power cut.
InsuranceTell your insurer
Tell your home insurer before the work starts, and check how your policy treats the lift and the alterations.
What does it cost?
It depends on the house as much as the lift.
We haven’t found published, itemised Irish prices for an installed home lift.
What Irish installers do publish are starting prices. Treat them as a first sense of scale, not a quote for your home.
Advertised figure
€11,000 to €19,000
A typical starting price for a home lift, as advertised by an Irish installer of home lifts (Stairlifts Access Lifts, accesslifts.ie). The page is undated; PlotNua checked it on 4 November 2026. It is not a quote, and it doesn’t say what is included: structural work, installation and VAT may all change the cost, and larger enclosed and glass lifts are typically priced higher.
- 01The type and size of lift
- 02The floor opening and builder’s work
- 03How many floors it serves
- 04Electrical work
- 05Finishes, glazing and wheelchair access
- 06VAT, servicing and the warranty
SourcesWhere this information comes from
- Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Housing Adaptation Grant for Disabled People and Mobility Aids Grant.
- Local authority grant pages: Tipperary County Council (income bands and the 12-month rule), South Dublin County Council (stair lifts and through-floor lifts), Galway County Council and Limerick City and County Council application form (approval before work begins).
- Revenue, How to reclaim VAT on aids and appliances for persons with disabilities.
- Planning and Development Act 2000, section 4(1)(h) and section 57; Houses of the Oireachtas, written answer on works affecting only the interior.
- Department of Housing, Technical Guidance Document B, Fire Safety, Volume 2: Dwelling Houses (2017), sections 1.3.3 and 3.7.
- Commission for Regulation of Utilities, Electrical works in your home.
- Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 on machinery, EUR-Lex (applies from 20 January 2027); EN 81-41:2024, vertical lifting platforms.
- The Irish Times, High-spec Dún Laoghaire home with great glass elevator (16 February 2023); Future-proofed three-bed in the heart of Dalkey; Going up: Rathgar super homes with lifts.
- Stairlifts Access Lifts, Home Lifts (advertised starting price; undated, checked 4 November 2026).
Last checked 4 November 2026. PlotNua is an independent discovery platform and does not recommend or endorse any provider mentioned; no provider named here is a PlotNua partner. Statements marked “Maker claim” summarise what manufacturers publish about their own products. The room images on this page are AI-generated illustrations, not photographs of an actual installation; the comparison drawings are simplified PlotNua illustrations.
