Most people live in a house or flat that has more than one floor. Most of the time 2 floors. Some have attics that are either a storage area or have been converted into additional living areas / rooms

In Europe, the first floor is most of the time dedicated to bedrooms, bathrooms, toilets, and sometime office, playroom, ironing, arts, etc…

Western countries see an explosion of the number of elderlies who are the BabyBoom seniors that own their home for 19 Mos of them, 20Mos in 2030 and 24Mo in 2050.

As given by a European recent poll, more than 75% of them would like to stay in their homes even when getting very old and very often partially disabled.

They are limited in this goal by the price of the lifts, the need of hard works, the floor areas that will be taken away. The stair lifts are a solution but 2 wheelchairs need to be used, and a minimal mobility is still needed to use them

And here comes the need of an easy access to the first floor when the stairs become an obstacle.

There are already solutions to this need, but the all have serious disadvantages.

A classical domestic lift answers to most of the needs but it implies a significant modification of the house layout, which is often a constraint, and always a headache. Existing useful surfaces will be reduced, penalized. Pricewise there is little chance a solution is available at less than 15 000 EUR or USD. High quality lifts can reach 20 to 25K , works included, for a single floor lift. A maintenance contract, meaning recurrent costs are required.

A stairlift is the most common solution people think of. Prices range from 3 000€ for a simple straight one to 13 000€+ for a curved and/or segmented one.. It reduces the existing staircase available width. Disabled people need to be able to move from a first wheelchair to the stairlift chair and vice-versa when arriving. Hence, two wheelchair are needed and one always stays in the path. The user cannot take with him any luggage or package. Even valid users need to sit down onto the staitrlift chair and tighten the sit belt to use it.

TEXTILFT® is a brand  new concept that solves most of these issues. TEXTILIFT is a technological transfer of extremely reliable solutions that have been used for half a century in the shading and shutter industry. It uses a tubular motor, a device that equips all motorized blinds and shutters all over the world with now more than 2 billion units produced each year by companies such as Somfy, and a famous prestressed polyester fabric that is used for most external roller shades in the world and as a cover of most stadiums, or truck trailers to lift the platform. Serge Ferrari is the manufacturer of this patented exclusive material. One meter wide of this heavy-duty fabric can lift 6 tons! And its durability is known to be more than 30 years.

The whole system is included in a wood casing, such as the roof-windows and the folding stairs casings. It is pre-assembled in shop and it can be easily bolted to the floor beams thus disappearing between floor and ceiling. This is why TEXTILIFT® is called “the invisible lift”. A single AC wall socket and 4 bolts are all you’ll need to install TEXTILIFT®

Pricewise we target a retail price, shipping and handling + 20% VAT included for a ready to install unit at 1500 to 2000 euros for the 120Kg capacity ATK model.

Other models, TWIN with a capacity of 240 Kg and PMR (for disabled people) will range from 5000 to 8000€, a price which will include a slab hopper opening and the installation and commissioning  of the lift as long as a national 20% VAT.

A table showing TEXTILIFT features vs existing lifting systems is attached here