My unwell father was suddenly unable to get upstairs in his own house, so we needed a lift but where to put it? Under the stairs of course!

First the beautifully hand crafted stairs were removed with a saw and taken to the workshop to be straightened up and repaired after the cutting. Hinges were attached and the soft adobe walls were scrapped back to allow them to freely lift.

A hydraulic pallet lift was purchased and installed, it just happened to fit perfectly under the stair opening. It had to be modified to work with an electric hydraulic pump in place of the original foot operated pump. This was not easy as little information was available about the inner workings of the system. A pump was ordered and work continued.

The stairs were reinstalled and a lift cage was built including switches to stop the hydraulics at the top and bottom.

A simple remotely operated power socket was used to control the pump and return valve. When the lift reached the top of bottom, these switches were reset by the switches in the cage.

Final touches of a door and cut out were added and there it was, a fully working magic lift. Watch the video to see how it really works. If you didn't know it was there, you'd never notice!