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BASE Lift Services
Platform lifts · Wheelchair lifts · BS EN 81-41 · 12 brands · ~4 decades of team experience

Platform lift service and repair — the BASE heritage discipline.

BASE specialises in platform lifts — also known as wheelchair lifts — low-rise vertical platforms typically used for accessibility in private homes, care homes, schools, councils and public buildings. Twelve platform-lift manufacturers serviced UK-wide on independent contracts: Aritco, Cibes, Dalby, Gartec, Kalea, Motala, Nami, NTD, Phoenix, Pollock, Stannah and Vimec.

Request a platform-lift quote Call 020 3435 6838 (24/7)
~4 decades
Management & Technical Director platform-lift experience
12 brands
Independent UK platform-lift coverage
BS EN 81-41
Standard · LOLER 6 or 12-month cycle
The platform-lift mechanism

What is a platform lift?

A platform lift is a low-rise vertical lifting platform — typically 2 to 6 metres of travel — designed primarily for accessibility. Most platform lifts in the UK installed base run on a screw-and-nut drive: a precision-ground steel screw turns against a bronze or composite drive nut to raise and lower the platform, with no counterweight and no traction rope. Hydraulic platform lifts also exist for higher-load or longer-travel duties. The defining visual signature is a half-height door and an open or three-quarter cabin — permitted under BS EN 81-41 because the lift is an accessibility provision rather than a general-purpose passenger lift.

The diagram on the right is a generic cross-section of a screw-driven platform lift. Five points annotated — drive nut, screw column, controlled-descent valve, half-height door, and pit. Each point is a maintenance touchpoint in the BASE contract: the drive nut is the consumable that decides through-life cost; the controlled-descent valve is tested at every LOLER thorough examination; the half-height door is the signature of an accessibility platform; the pit is what lets the lift retrofit into a building a passenger lift cannot enter. For the platform-vs-passenger taxonomy in detail, see our lift-types guide.

  1. 01

    Drive nut — the wear part

    The drive nut threads onto the screw column and carries the platform. Bronze or polymer composite; it is the consumable in the drive train and wears against the screw across millions of cycles. Replacement cadence is the single biggest variable in platform-lift through-life cost.

  2. 02

    Screw column — the load path

    A precision-ground steel screw runs the full travel of the shaft. The platform climbs and descends by rotating the screw against the static drive nut. No counterweight, no traction ropes — the screw is the entire mechanism, which is why platform lifts can fit shafts a passenger lift cannot.

  3. 03

    Controlled-descent valve

    In a power failure the platform must descend safely to the nearest landing. The controlled-descent valve regulates the rate so passengers are not stranded. Tested at every LOLER thorough examination — failure is a category-A defect that takes the lift out of service.

  4. 04

    Half-height door & cabin

    Platform lifts at the residential and small-public end of the range use half-height doors and an open or three-quarter cabin — BS EN 81-41 permits this where the lift is for accessibility rather than general passenger use. The half-height door is the defining visual signature.

  5. 05

    Pit & buffer — sized to nil

    Platform lifts often run with a 50–100 mm pit, sometimes nil pit on self-supporting structures. This is why platform lifts retrofit into buildings a passenger lift cannot enter — Grade II listed homes, tight residential cores, accessibility upgrades in occupied schools and councils.

Cross-section of a screw-driven platform lift showing drive nut, screw column, controlled-descent valve, half-height door and pit UL LL PIT 01 02 03 04 05 FIG. P-01 PLATFORM LIFT · SCREW DRIVE · CROSS-SECTION BS EN 81-41
Two duty cycles, one engineering team

A platform lift in a private home and one in a school run to different cycles.
The engineering discipline is the same.

The platform-lift category splits cleanly along one line: who uses the lift. Private domestic — one household — sits on the 12-month LOLER cycle. Public-accessible — schools, councils, retail, care homes, NHS estates, GP surgeries — sits on the 6-month LOLER cycle, with full enclosure or hospital-spec cabin and Equality Act 2010 accessibility evidence in the maintenance record. BASE services both columns on the same independent contract shape, alongside our wider maintenance, repair, modernisation and LOLER inspection portfolio.

Residential platform lifts

Private domestic accessibility lifts (BS EN 81-41 · LOLER 12-month)

The original BASE specialism. A platform lift retrofitted into a private home — between two floors, sometimes three — to keep an owner in their property as mobility changes. Half-height door, open or three-quarter cabin, screw-driven, minimal pit. The lift is built and maintained to BS EN 81-41, the LOLER thorough examination runs on a 12-month cycle (private domestic use, not accessible to the general public), and the contract is sized for low cycle count and quiet, reliable operation rather than warehouse-level duty.

  • BS EN 81-41 vertical lifting platforms
  • Travel 2–6 m typical, screw or hydraulic drive
  • LOLER 12-month thorough examination (private domestic)
  • Half-height door / open cabin retrofit-friendly
  • Aritco HomeLift, Cibes, Stannah, Vimec residential ranges
Residential platform-lift sector
Public-use platform lifts

Schools, councils, retail and care-home platform lifts (LOLER 6-month)

The second column of the platform-lift category — installed in buildings where the general public, pupils, residents or staff use the lift daily. Higher cycle count, full enclosure or hospital-spec cabin, public-rated controls, raised tactile call buttons. The LOLER thorough examination moves from 12 months to 6 months because the lift is accessible to the public. Equality Act 2010 evidence sits inside the commissioning record and the maintenance log.

  • BS EN 81-41 + Equality Act 2010 accessibility evidence
  • LOLER 6-month cycle (public-accessible)
  • Full enclosure / hospital-spec cabin available
  • Schools, councils, retail, care homes, NHS estates
  • Aritco PublicLift Access, Cibes, Gartec, Kalea, Motala
Accessibility sector

Twelve platform-lift brands serviced UK-wide

All brands hub

Related services & supporting pages

All services Maintenance contracts Repair & 24/7 call-out Modernisation New installations LOLER inspection Passenger lifts Accessibility sector Residential sector Lift types guide
What buildings say

From a Grade II townhouse to a care-home portfolio. Same engineering standard.

“We had an Aritco HomeLift retrofitted into a Grade II listed townhouse when my mother's mobility changed. BASE specified the lift around the listing constraints, installed it inside two weeks, and they've serviced it on the same contract for nine years now. The lift has paid for itself in care costs alone.”

Margaret W.

Homeowner

Private residence, Chelsea

“Our care home runs eleven platform lifts across three sites — mostly Cibes and Stannah — and we'd inherited a mixed bag of OEM contracts. BASE took the whole portfolio on a single independent contract, harmonised the LOLER cycle, and the through-life cost dropped 30% the first year.”

James T.

Group Facilities Manager

Care-home group, South-East England

“The school's platform lift had been on a national contract that wasn't responding inside SLA — door interlocks failing, lift out for days. BASE migrated us across, did a baseline survey, replaced the worn drive-nut assembly, and the lift has not had an unplanned out-of-service incident in fourteen months.”

Claire P.

Estates Officer

Secondary school, London

Platform lifts — common questions

What owners and specifiers ask about platform lifts.

What is a platform lift?
A platform lift is a low-rise vertical lifting platform — typically 2 to 6 metres of travel — designed primarily for accessibility. Most platform lifts in the UK installed base run on a screw-and-nut drive (a precision-ground steel screw turns against a bronze or composite drive nut to raise and lower the platform), though hydraulic platform lifts also exist for higher-load or longer-travel duties. The defining visual signature is a half-height door and an open or three-quarter cabin, which is permitted by BS EN 81-41 because the lift is an accessibility provision rather than a general-purpose passenger lift. Platform lifts retrofit into shafts a passenger lift cannot — minimal pit, often nil pit on self-supporting structures, and reduced headroom — which is why they dominate residential retrofit, Grade II listed buildings, schools, care homes, councils and small public buildings.
Are platform lifts the same as wheelchair lifts?
Yes — single category, two common names. Most UK searches for "wheelchair lifts" land the user on a platform-lift product, because the dominant use case for a platform lift is wheelchair accessibility. The legal and engineering name in the British Standard (BS EN 81-41) is "vertical lifting platforms intended for use by persons with impaired mobility" — what manufacturers and the public call a platform lift, and what some accessibility consultants and end-users call a wheelchair lift. BASE uses "platform lift" as the primary term and surfaces "wheelchair lift" as the secondary because the platform-lift product is broader than the wheelchair use case alone (it carries mobility-aid users, ambulant disabled users with walking sticks or frames, parents with pushchairs, and staff moving stock).
Which platform-lift brands do BASE service?
Twelve, on independent contracts UK-wide. Aritco (Swedish, screw-driven, HomeLift residential and PublicLift Access public ranges). Cibes (Swedish, screw-driven, residential and public). Dalby (UK, residential and public platform range). Gartec (UK distributor of Aritco). Kalea (Italian, traction platform lifts for residential). Motala (Italian, accessibility platform lifts). Nami (Italian, vertical platforms). NTD (Italian, screw and hydraulic platform range). Phoenix (UK, residential and public). Pollock (UK, platform and goods range). Stannah (UK — the platform side of the Stannah range, distinct from the passenger and stairlift sides of the business). Vimec (Italian, residential and public platform lifts). All twelve sit on independent BASE maintenance contracts — we are not affiliated with any of them.
How often does a platform lift need a LOLER thorough examination?
Twelve months for a private-domestic platform lift, six months for a platform lift accessible to the public. LOLER 1998 — the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations — requires a thorough examination by an independent competent person on those intervals, with a Schedule 1 written report issued. A platform lift in a private home (one household, no public access) sits on the 12-month cycle. A platform lift in a school, council building, retail store, care home, NHS estate, GP surgery or any other building where the general public, residents, pupils or visitors might use it sits on the 6-month cycle. Get the wrong cycle and the lift is non-compliant — the cycle is a function of who uses the lift, not what the manufacturer recommends. See our /services/inspections/loler/ page for the full process.
How much does platform-lift maintenance cost?
Indicative bracket for a private-domestic platform lift on a comprehensive independent contract: £400–£900 per year. A public-use platform lift on a 6-month LOLER cycle with full-cover contract: £800–£1,500 per year. Multi-site portfolios get a portfolio rate that is typically 15–25% lower than the standalone equivalent. The variables are the make and age of the lift, the cycle count, the accessibility duty (private domestic vs public), the contract scope (call-outs included, parts included, out-of-hours included), and the geographic location. Our /knowledge/lift-maintenance-cost/ page covers the breakdown.
Can a platform lift be installed in a Grade II listed home?
Yes — listed-building accessibility is the heritage end of the platform-lift category. Screw-driven platform lifts need minimal pit (often 50 mm, sometimes nil on self-supporting structures) and reduced headroom, which means the structural intrusion into the listed fabric is small enough that Conservation Officers will sign listed-building consent. Half-height door, three-quarter cabin, screw drive against the wall of an existing stairwell or hall — the engineering rarely fights the listing. The drawings package is the gate; pitch it to the Conservation Officer rather than to a generic Building Control template and consent is the gate it should be rather than a months-long correction loop. See /services/installations/ for the install pathway and /sectors/accessibility/ for the heritage / BS 8300 framing.
Why did BASE specialise in platform lifts from day one?
BASE was founded by engineers who had spent decades installing and servicing platform lifts inside the OEM channel and watched the same patterns repeat — owners locked into OEM contracts that prioritised new-equipment sales over installed-base service, response times stretching, parts cost climbing, the independent option barely existing for platform lifts. The opening proposition was straightforward: an independent UK service for the platform-lift installed base, building parts coverage and engineering depth across every major UK make rather than just one. Our management team and Technical Director carry approaching four decades of platform and passenger lift experience between them. Passenger lifts, goods lifts and modernisation all sit alongside — but platform is the heritage discipline and the page you are reading is the spine of the business.
Can BASE take over an existing platform-lift OEM contract?
Yes, regularly — this is the dominant route into the BASE installed base. Owners come off OEM contracts at renewal or after a service failure, BASE migrates the documentation, runs a baseline survey, writes a clean BS EN 81-41 maintenance plan and picks up the contract. The pre-handover or first-visit thorough examination is independent — by design, the LOLER independence rule is preserved either way. See /services/maintenance/ for the contract overview and /services/repair/ for the 24/7 response if you have a lift out of service today.
Twelve brands. One independent contract.

Tell us about the platform lift. We'll quote inside the week.

A new Aritco HomeLift retrofitted into a Grade II listed home, a Cibes platform lift across a care-home group, a Stannah or Gartec unit in a school, or a takeover of an existing OEM platform-lift contract — every enquiry starts with a written survey or quote inside the week. Twelve brands serviced UK-wide on independent contracts. Twelve years of platform-lift specialism behind every visit.

Request a platform-lift quote Call 020 3435 6838 (24/7)

Or email enquiries@baselifts.co.uk