Home Elevator Pre-Contract Planning Checklist
=============================================
A printable checklist of everything to confirm about your house, your installer, and the proposal before you sign a residential elevator contract.

[ ] Decide who will ride the elevator most often, including anyone who uses a wheelchair or walker, and whether it must support aging in place.
[ ] List every landing the car should serve and confirm which floors truly need a stop, since each additional stop adds a door, a call station, and construction work.
[ ] Identify a hoistway location that stacks floor to floor, such as aligned closets, an oversized hallway, space beside a stair, or an exterior bump-out.
[ ] Measure the pit depth available below the lowest landing and the overhead clearance above the highest landing, and note any roofline or attic conflicts.
[ ] Confirm whether a machine closet within a short distance of the hoistway is available if a hydraulic pump and controller are proposed.
[ ] Ask each installer which drive systems genuinely fit the house, whether hydraulic, traction, winding drum, or pneumatic, and why the others were ruled out.
[ ] Request a written preliminary budget range that covers equipment, hoistway construction, pit, electrical, structural work, landing finishes, permits, and inspection.
[ ] Verify that the company holds the elevator contractor license your state requires and ask for a current certificate of insurance.
[ ] Ask how many units of the proposed model the company has installed locally and request addresses of a few you can visit.
[ ] Ride a comparable installed elevator and listen for noise both inside the cab and in the rooms adjacent to the shaft and machine closet.
[ ] Confirm the proposal meets the edition of the ASME A17.1 private residence section adopted by your state, including the hall door to car gate gap rule.
[ ] Check that door interlocks, a gate switch, emergency lowering, battery backup, and a two-way communication device are included rather than listed as options.
[ ] Decide between swing hall doors paired with a gate and automatic sliding doors, and ask for both configurations to be priced.
[ ] Choose cab finishes early and confirm in writing that their weight is accounted for in the rated load and the drive selection.
[ ] Establish who builds the hoistway and to what tolerances, and have that responsibility written into the contract.
[ ] Confirm who supplies the dedicated power circuit, the cab lighting circuit, and the telephone or communication line.
[ ] Get the equipment lead time in writing and align the order date with the builder's hoistway schedule so neither side waits on the other.
[ ] Read the warranty terms for parts and for labor separately and note the length of each period.
[ ] Ask whether the control system is proprietary and whether an independent service company could maintain it in the future.
[ ] Have the annual service contract quoted alongside the installation, with the number of visits and the entrapment response time stated.
[ ] Ask whether replacement parts are stocked locally and how quickly a technician can reach the house after a breakdown.
[ ] Clarify who repairs and matches the landing finishes, flooring, and trim at every stop once installation is complete.
[ ] Confirm the permit and third-party inspection process, including who schedules the inspection and who attends it.
[ ] Start a project folder with drawings, proposals, permits, and warranty documents, and keep the service record in it for future buyers.