Residential elevators are becoming less of a luxury for home owners, so one option for modifying a large home with an elevator has been custom elevators. All of the same features of home elevators are in place in a custom elevator, but what differentiates one of these apart is the design. Instead of relying on a strictly wood or metal design, custom elevators can conform to the design of your home, or, essentially, they can be designed any way you would like. For an ordinary home elevator, the planning involves choosing the type best suited to the house and installing the elevator and, if needed, the machine room. But with a custom elevator, architectural planning of the design and which materials are going to be used is involved, as well.
For the basic information about home elevators, four basics types are available. The most common is a hydraulic lift elevator. While this type of home elevator needs a machine room to operate and in case of emergencies, the elevator is lifted from the ground up. Hydraulic is considered the safest design for emergencies and natural disasters like earthquakes and, as a result, is the most popular for all homes. A traction elevator is another type, and one of its benefits is not needing a machine room to operate. As the design uses cables and weights to move the elevator car, however, the design is not as safe for regions prior to earthquakes and other natural disasters. Another type of elevator that does not need a machine room is a pneumatic lift elevator which, in a home, involves a clear chute that moves a car up and down by suction. And, if you're trying to go green, an overhead winding drum elevator is often the best option, as oil is not used in its operation.
In terms of design, both hydraulic and pneumatic lift elevators appear to be the most popular, not only for safety issues but for design possibilities, as well. A pneumatic custom elevator, for example, allows your home to have a panoramic view when ascending or descending through your house. Hydraulic elevators, with a larger design, give more options for metal and work working and additional details in the interior of the elevator cab. Essentially, design for custom elevators is limitless, but consulting with an architect or designer beforehand can assist you in finding the best fit for your home.
After the type of elevator and style has been determined, the next step is to install the custom elevator. In a home, this often means having space set aside for the elevator shaft and machine room. Custom elevators are installed like any ordinary residential elevator, but the final result looks more polished.