Home Elevator Cost in Illinois

The type of lift is one important part of the price. We compared published price ranges to come up with these typical installed figures, and our method explains how.

Think of a shaft as a tall enclosed closet the car travels inside. A shaft-free model skips that and simply rises through an opening cut in the floor. A pneumatic elevator is a clear tube, and air pressure does the moving.

Nationally, a two-story home elevator runs $30,000 to $60,000.

Plan on roughly $9,000 to $15,000 more for each floor beyond two. If your house has no room for a shaft, adding one to an existing home costs another $5,000 to $25,000.

Every quote builds labor into the price, and Illinois installers earn more than the national average. A written quote shows exactly what labor adds for your house.

The state does not require one. Under the Illinois Elevator Safety and Regulation Act, elevators, platform lifts, and chairlifts in a private home closed to the public are not covered. The Office of the State Fire Marshal leaves these lifts alone: no registration, no permit, no inspection, and no state fee.

If a permit applies to you, it comes from the local building department, or from a municipal elevator program if your town has one, the Fire Marshal explains. Covered buildings face a yearly third-party inspection, but that requirement never reaches single-family homes. All the state can offer you for a private home is safety information.

The code that governs your home is whichever one your local building department has adopted. For the buildings the Act does cover, Illinois applies ASME A17.1-2019 to its elevators, while platform lifts and stair chairlifts fall under ASME A18.1-2017.

Chicago is different. The state Act does not apply there, because the city administers its own program. Any lift (platform lifts, stair chairlifts, and wheelchair lifts included) needs an elevator permit from the Chicago Department of Buildings.

The exemption for homes does not extend to condos or apartments. If an elevator serves a condo building, the state requires it to be registered.

The state issues licences to elevator contractors and mechanics, along with limited mechanics who handle a single type of lift. The contractor licence includes private homes, and the limited contractor licence does not. Since home lifts are exempt under the law, no one can say for sure whether a single-family home strictly needs a licensed installer.

Your safest bet is a state-licensed elevator contractor.

Call us now. We'll send a licensed installer to measure your home and give you a written quote, so you know what to expect.

Several programs in Illinois can help with the bill:

• Home Services Program, Environmental Modification: This is a Medicaid waiver, a form of Medicaid that pays for care at home rather than in a facility. IDHS Rehabilitation Services runs this one, for people with disabilities under 60. It can cover home changes that offset lost mobility and make the house safer. The state has not published a dollar cap.
• IHDA Home Repair and Accessibility Program: Money here flows from the Illinois Housing Development Authority to local governments and nonprofits, which then fund safety repairs and accessibility work for homeowners with low and very low incomes. Applications go through a local agency, and funding amounts and rounds change.
• IHDA Home Accessibility Program: During the 2019 funding round, seniors and people with disabilities were eligible for as much as $25,000 through a forgivable loan spread over five years, with most of it going toward projects like lifts. The area median income marks the midpoint of what households near you earn, and this round was open to households making no more than 80 percent of that figure.
• IATP ATLOAN$: Run by the Illinois Assistive Technology Program, this option offers financing for assistive technology.

Want to know what an elevator could cost in your house? Call now for a quote based on your space.