Platform Lifts
Service & Repair
New Installations
Inspections
OnLevel — New Lifts by Sector
Domestic platform and passenger lifts, engineered for the homes people actually live in.
BASE is an independent UK lift engineering team that designs, installs, services and modernises domestic lifts across every residential setting — new build, retrofit, listed buildings, accessibility, multi-generational and luxury homes. Home elevators, platform lift repairs, wheelchair lift repairs and stairlift fixes are all covered on one engineering contract.
- 4 brands
- Aritco · Cibes · Kalea · Vimec
- 12-month
- LOLER cycle (private homes)
- UK-wide
- London base · same-day M25
What does a domestic lift actually look like in a UK home?
A flat-veneer cab door, a slim landing-call plate at hand height, a hall lantern above the door — a domestic platform lift installed properly should disappear into the architecture of the home rather than announce itself. The shaft is built around the joinery, not the other way around.
Brushed brass, oak veneer, painted-steel, fully-glazed shaft, leather-floor cab — every residential install is specified to the interior, with the engineering kit doing its work out of sight.
Where does the domestic lift category actually fit?
Every UK home that wants a lift sits somewhere on this map: a new-build with the shaft cast into the slab, a retrofit dropped into a stair void, a listed Georgian townhouse on conservation consent, an accessibility-led ageing-in-place install, a multi-generational three-storey home or a luxury residence with a fully glazed cab. We service all six on the same engineering standard — and we link out to the accessibility sector hub where the spec is wheelchair-led.
New-build private homes
Specifying a domestic lift inside a new home build is mostly a coordination problem — pit depths, headroom, blockwork tolerances and which structural opening the lift maker will accept. We work alongside the architect and main contractor from RIBA stage 3 onward to lock the platform-lift shaft into the slab before the floor pours, so the install at second-fix is a one-day mechanical job not a re-cut.
Retrofit into an existing home
Most domestic lift jobs in the UK are retrofits — an Aritco HomeLift or Cibes screw-driven platform lift dropped into a stair void, a corner of a hall, or a former cupboard. The win is that screw-and-nut platform lifts need almost no pit and almost no headroom, so the house barely changes around them.
Listed-building & heritage installs
Grade II and Grade II* homes are the hardest residential category in the UK lift market. Planning consent, listed-building consent, conservation officer dialogue, Building Regulations Part B (fire) compatibility, sympathetic finishes — we have specified Cibes, Kalea and Vimec platform lifts inside Georgian townhouses, Victorian villas and converted barns where any of the more invasive drive systems would never have been allowed.
Ageing-in-place & accessibility
When a domestic lift is specified for an occupant with a wheelchair, a walker, or a degenerative mobility condition, the spec changes — wider cabin, 0 mm threshold, hold-to-run control with future upgrade to single-press operation, audio call-out, hands-free door operation. The platform-lift category is purpose-built for this, with the Vimec DomusLift and Cibes A5000 the workhorses for ageing-in-place retrofits.
Multi-storey & multi-generational homes
Three-storey houses with a granny annex on the top floor, basement-to-attic four-stop platform lifts, mixed-use mews homes — multi-generational living is the fastest-growing residential lift use case in the UK. Up to 6–7 stops is well inside platform-lift territory (Aritco HomeLift 9000, Cibes Voyager). Above that we move to a shrunken commercial passenger lift frame.
Luxury & high-spec residential
Private luxury residences — Belgravia, Mayfair, Chelsea, Cotswold country houses — typically want a fully glazed lift cab, leather floors, mirror-polished stainless, ambient LED, the disappearing-pit Kalea Stilla or the all-glass Cibes Air. We project-manage the design package alongside the interior architect so the lift cab is part of the design narrative, not bolted in afterwards.
Survey & home assessment
A senior engineer visits the home to assess the proposed lift location, structural openings, electrical supply, headroom and pit options. Domestic lift services begin with this site assessment — for retrofits it's typically 60–90 minutes; for listed-building projects we add a follow-up with the conservation officer.
Brand & model recommendation
We recommend the platform or passenger lift that suits the home, the occupant and the build constraints — not the manufacturer paying the largest rebate. Aritco HomeLift, Cibes Voyager, Kalea Stilla, Vimec DomusLift and (for larger multi-storey homes) a shrunken Stannah passenger frame are all on the table, each chosen on engineering merit.
Planning, permits & compliance
Building Regulations Part M (access), Part B (fire), Part K (protection from falling), BS EN 81-41 for platform lifts, BS EN 81-20/50 for passenger lifts. For listed buildings: listed-building consent and conservation-officer sign-off. We file the paperwork alongside the architect and confirm compliance before the order goes in.
Installation & commissioning
Mechanical install typically runs three to five working days for a platform lift, five to eight for a small passenger lift. We hand over with a full demonstration, the operations manual, the LOLER baseline report, the EC declaration of conformity and the maintenance handbook.
Annual maintenance & LOLER
Private domestic platform lifts fall under the 12-month LOLER 1998 thorough-examination cycle. Service-only or service+LOLER contracts are available; both include a documented condition report, parts coverage and a 24-hour emergency call-out line. London and the M25 get same-day response; the rest of the UK is scheduled by region.
What residential clients say after the lift goes in.
Three short reads — a townhouse in Mayfair, a listed Georgian in Bath and an accessibility retrofit in Surrey. Different brands, different consent paths, same engineering contract.
Base installed our Aritco HomeLift during the build of a four-storey Mayfair townhouse. The lift coordination with the structural engineer was handled directly between Base and the contractor — we never had to translate. Five years of annual LOLER and the lift has not missed a service window once.
We needed a platform lift fitted into a Grade II Georgian house in Bath. Cibes was the right call — air-driven, no pit, sympathetic finishes. Base ran the conservation-officer process and the lift went in without compromising the staircase. It now serves both my parents and the children's bedrooms upstairs.
After my stroke we needed a wheelchair-rated lift in a 1930s suburban home. Base specified a Vimec DomusLift, handled the building-control submission, and had the lift running in eight working days. The hands-free door and the audio call-out have given us our independence back.
The four questions every homeowner asks first.
Planning, listed buildings, cost and timescales — the answers below come straight from our senior engineering team, not a sales script.
Do I need planning permission to install a residential lift?
Can a lift be installed in a listed or heritage building?
What does a residential lift cost in the UK?
How long does a residential lift installation take?
Tell us about the home. We'll tell you what the lift needs to be.
Whether it's a new-build Aritco HomeLift, a Cibes Air dropped into a listed townhouse, a Vimec DomusLift for an accessibility retrofit or a shrunken Stannah passenger lift in a multi-generational home — start with a survey. A senior engineer reviews every residential enquiry.
Or email enquiries@baselifts.co.uk — local London specialists with a UK-wide engineering team and a 24-hour service line.