Home Elevator Cost in Kentucky

The kind of lift you pick drives most of the price. These prices are drawn from published ranges rather than from quotes given by Kentucky dealers.

Across the country, an elevator for a two-story home runs $30,000 to $60,000. Every floor past the second adds $9,000 to $15,000. Many elevators need a shaft, the enclosed column the car travels in, and building one inside an existing house adds about $5,000 to $25,000.

Kentucky's rules apply to private homes, which fall under the state housing department that handles buildings and construction. That department reviews plans and issues permits covering home elevators, stair chairlifts, and wheelchair lifts. Every new home elevator, platform lift, or stair chairlift has to be signed off by a state inspector. Units already in a home only get inspected when the owner requests it.

A permit can only be pulled by a Kentucky-licensed elevator contractor. Before the final inspection, that contractor files a checklist form for private residences.

Your permit covers up to two inspections. Any inspection beyond that costs the same as the permit itself.

LULA means "limited use, limited access," and Kentucky lists a $150 permit fee for this type of elevator. The rules leave it unclear whether a home elevator falls under the $400 passenger fee, and the licensed contractor who pulls your permit can tell you which fee applies.

The state of Kentucky licenses elevator contractors and elevator mechanics. There is also a narrower licence covering accessibility lifts and private home elevators. Since pulling the permit requires a licensed contractor, an installer without a licence cannot legally finish the job. We can match you with a nearby dealer who holds a Kentucky license.

Kentucky elevator installers earn a median of about $20.51 an hour and the carpenters who frame the shaft earn about $25.33, well below the $52.84 national median for elevator installers.

• Kentucky Assistive Technology Loan Corporation: this state-created lender offers low-interest loans to Kentuckians with disabilities, home modifications included. It also runs zero-percent mini loans from $100 to $7,000 with repayment terms as long as four years. The program said in January 2024 that it was restructuring and searching for a new partner to lend through.
• Medicaid Home and Community Based waiver: covers as much as $2,500 in a level-of-care year for small home adaptations. Approval must come first, and you must gather three provider quotes.
• Supports for Community Living waiver: this one serves people with intellectual or developmental disabilities and includes environmental accessibility adaptation among its covered services. No dollar limit was listed.
• Sales tax exemption: with a prescription, Kentucky waives sales and use tax on mobility enhancing equipment. The rule does not say whether an installed home elevator or lift qualifies, so ask your dealer.

When a Kentucky inspector checks your lift, the yardstick is the set of standards cited in the Kentucky Building Code. The 2018 edition draws from the 2015 international building and residential codes, plus Kentucky's own amendments. Your licensed contractor follows these standards when installing the lift.

Call now and tell us about your home and how many floors you need to reach. We'll match you with a Kentucky-licensed dealer who can measure your home and give you a price, and that contractor will pull the permit for the required state inspection.