Stannah Stair Lift Installation

Stannah has stayed a family business since 1867 and reaches US customers in two ways: directly from Stannah's own branches in Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey, or through distributors covering the rest of the country. Either way, the person who turns up at your home is trained on Stannah lifts, so the end result ought to look identical whichever path you take.

The two paths mainly differ in the paperwork. Stannah's own warranty cover is for people who purchase from Stannah itself, whereas a buyer going through a distributor has to check with that distributor what protection the lift comes with.

The job begins well before any tools show up. Stannah provides a free home visit where your stairs get measured and the cost is fixed, which means checking whether a lift will fit costs you nothing.

1. A surveyor comes round, measures the staircase and confirms which model is right for it. This visit costs nothing, so you owe nothing if you decide against it.
2. Your lift gets ordered. A straight rail is ready in around 5 working days, while a curved rail takes 3 to 4 weeks, since each curved rail is built for that particular staircase.
3. The fitter turns up and puts in the rail and seat. Stannah says the fitting usually runs a few hours, with half a day as the upper limit.
4. Before going, the fitter walks you through the seat, controls and remotes.

The rail attaches to the stair treads rather than the wall, and that is why someone has to measure the stairs before anything else happens.

Stannah makes its starting prices public for the three main lift types it sells. We have placed them next to the installed price ranges we find across other brands, so you can see at a glance where a Stannah quote lands. Stannah's numbers are "from" prices, while ours sit in the middle of figures from at least three independent guides, so neither side is a quote for your own stairs.

Those starting prices from Stannah come from its US site. If your staircase has a landing partway up, it is priced as curved because the rail must bend, and across brands that runs $9,000 to $15,000 all in.

A typical straight rail measures 15.5 ft. If your stairs are longer, you need extra rail, and across brands each extra foot adds roughly $80 to $100.

A straight Stannah lift is normally installed about 5 working days after the order goes in. A curved model needs 3 to 4 weeks, as the rail is made to the precise shape of your staircase.

Those times match what we find for other brands, where straight lifts take 1 to 15 days and curved ones roughly 3 to 5 weeks. The day of fitting looks similar too: Stannah says the visit is a few hours to half a day, while across brands straight lifts usually take 2 to 4 hours and curved ones 4 to 5 hours.

The same people who installed your lift handle the repairs. In areas Stannah serves directly, its own technicians visit, and anywhere else the job is handed over to the local Stannah distributor. According to Stannah, its call-out service reaches most of the US one way or the other.

Since a distributor's engineer knows Stannah lifts and stocks Stannah parts, it pays to hold on to the name of the firm that fitted your lift originally. That firm is usually the fastest route to booking a repair.

A new Stannah lift bought directly carries lifetime cover for the carriage motor gearbox. The carriage is the section that holds the seat and pulls it along the rail, so the part under the most strain is the one covered. A reconditioned lift, meaning a second-hand lift Stannah has rebuilt and sold again, gets 10 years of cover on that same part.

These terms are aimed at direct buyers. If you buy through a distributor, ask that distributor to give you its warranty in writing, as the cover may not be the same.

Our directory lists 967 stairlift installers covering all 50 states, and 636 of them list repairs and servicing too. Our listings are built using the public dealer locators that Bruno and Harmar publish, updated every three months, so a firm that fits Stannah lifts only shows up here when it also stocks Bruno or Harmar.

A ZIP code search brings up installers with an office within 40 miles, closest first. If fewer than three fall within that range, the search stretches to 80 miles so rural homes still see results. We do not sell, install or repair lifts ourselves, and installers can pay us for referrals.