basement access

[new dimension]

Trying to figure out a way to access a basement without going outside...a ramp would be possible but it would need to be 144ft long for ADA standards. the house will have an attached garage and a walkout basement but in the dead of winter not an option we want to entertain. Any ideas....get creative here we are open to ideas...thanks

[SoulScream]

I butt boost up and down the stairs. Have someone hold your feet so they don't get a rug burn or scraped.

[gjnl]

Here is a website with some interesting concepts:
http://www.dmeaccess.com/residential_inclined.htm

I did a Google search "basement access for wheelchair." There may be a lot of ideas in the listings that came up that I didn't have time to look at.

Good Luck,
GJ

[MSWIFE1]

I bought a 8 ft. porch lift off of ebay, built a closet around it and it works great.

[chasmengr]

stair lift and a spare chair for the basement?

[Katja]

stair lift and a spare chair for the basement?

That's exactly what I was going to say.

[gurly2356]

platform lift so no need for spare chair or the hassle of transfering

[PeanutsLucy]

stairlift. We have one to our basement. Works great.

[wheelin 48]

stair lift and a spare chair for the basement?

thats what i do but gurly has a great idea there

[6GunCobra]

Kind of pricey, but an elevator would be an idea. When I adapted my home, I put one in to get down to our walkout basement a garage. It is freaking awesome, but they aren't cheep.

[tw]

Make an elevator

I drew up plans for a homemade elevator, and my dad, uncle & cousins did the work. It was pretty cheap.
We have a rectangular cement/block opening in our garage floor that had a set of wooden steps leading to the basement. We took the stairs out, which left just a rectangular opening. Then we made a wall that went from the garage floor to the ceiling on the other side of the opening. Next, we added a steel I beam across the exisiting wall to the new wall, and hung a winch from it. The winch has a hanging pendulum controller on it for up/down. after that, we took 4 sections of garage door track, and mounted them on the walls in each corner of the new "shaft". The most expensive part was having a platform made - I have an aluminum frame with a hook welded on top for the winch, and diamond plate on the floor & mesh on the sides. We have mounting blocks on each corner top & bottom with rubber garage door wheels to ride in the tracks. Works awesome, have been using it for the last 11 years now.

[drinkypoo]

That's pretty freakin awesome. I've always thought of doing some homemade elevator, even before I was injured. I always thought of just some counter weighted, pulley operated platform, kind of like a dumbwaiter. I guess you might as well add an electric motor/winch. It would be way awesome if you could post some shots!

Here's another way to go up and down from the basement:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arIglT--omY

that pole would definitely take me some training!

[MarkB701]

I know you just ruled out the solution I use, but....

for $750 I had a concrete path laid from the garage, round the side of the house to the basement. It is definately not the gay ADA slope, but I can push it using my massive guns (ok, normal sized arms). If it rains......well.....it never rains here in GA, and when it does rain it quits after 10 minutes......

The big plus point is that it doesn't screw up the house/stairs for resale value....its a nice path that any home owner would like

[rdf]

If you have time, post some pictures, Mark. I'd like to see how you did it, as I've been thinking along similar lines.

I know you just ruled out the solution I use, but....

for $750 I had a concrete path laid from the garage, round the side of the house to the basement. It is definately not the gay ADA slope, but I can push it using my massive guns (ok, normal sized arms). If it rains......well.....it never rains here in GA, and when it does rain it quits after 10 minutes......

The big plus point is that it doesn't screw up the house/stairs for resale value....its a nice path that any home owner would like

[tigger74]

My Ramp

Here's pictures of my ramp. The slope is 2 3/4:12. I'm in a power chair so going up and down is no problem. No one has complained about it being to hard to walk up and down either.