Once you start planning a home lift, you will inevitably run into lift terms you have never used before, such as the lift pit , the lift door , the lift machine room and, of course, the lift shaft. The shaft is another essential component that makes a home lift complete. In this article, Cibes Lift explains what a lift shaft is, how many types there are and what sizes it comes in.
What is a lift shaft?
Cibes V80i, our newest model with the latest technology
A lift shaft is the opening or enclosed space inside a house or building that a lift uses as its path of travel up and down. Shafts are normally built from concrete, steel, aluminium or glass so they form a strong structure and contain the sound of the lift as it moves. The shaft is always larger than the cabin area used by passengers.
Two types of lift shaft commonly seen today
1. Solid lift shaft
This is a shaft whose structure is made of cement (Cement Material) and is mainly used for interior applications (Interior Design). Solid shafts commonly house lifts with a cable drive (Cling Driven-System) or a hydraulic drive (Hydraulic Driven-System).
2. Transparent lift shaft
This is a transparent shaft with a modern, elegant, luxurious look. Its main structure is made of steel (Steel) or aluminium (Aluminium) and the see-through sections are filled with various types of glass (Glass) — what many people simply call a glass lift.
On top of that, Cibes Lift home lifts feature LED lighting used by the Safety Edge safety system, which also makes the lift look strikingly beautiful and luxurious.
Why do you need a lift shaft?
Cibes Lift home lift shafts are made of aircraft-grade aluminium for exceptional strength+
The lift shaft protects users from the hazards of riding a lift, keeping anyone inside the cabin or on the platform from slipping out or falling. Lift company Cibes Lift has engineered a new drive innovation based on a screw system that replaces the pulley-and-cable arrangement used to haul a traction lift up and down. With the Cibes screw system, the motor turns a screw against a nut to drive the lift up and down instead, which makes it safe — the lift simply cannot fall.
The shaft matters a great deal when choosing a lift, both for the amount of space the lift takes up in your home and for the entry and exit points on each floor. A lift shaft has four sides, as described below.
- Sides A, B, C: can be used as entry and exit points for the home lift
- Side D: houses the machine section and the screw drive system
A platform lift can have up to 3 entry and exit points
The image above shows the pre-engineered Cibes Lift shaft, a premium home lift that comes with its own shaft and is designed quite unlike the building lifts you are used to. A lift in a high-rise normally has a fully enclosed cabin with just one entrance, or two at most, and that means the shaft has to be designed and finished before the building or house is completed.
Cibes lifts, on the other hand, are designed to be flexible for anyone installing a lift in a home that was never prepared for one — especially when the lift goes into the middle of a stairwell and the door needs to open on a different side on each floor. For homes like these, a Cibes lift is an even better fit.
The same is true for homeowners or building owners who would rather not build a concrete shaft, because that means construction work, a long site preparation and an enormous amount of fine detail. Choosing a Cibes home lift that comes with a shaft you can select and customise is an excellent solution.
What size is a lift shaft?
The size of a lift shaft depends on the cabin area you want. For example:
Smallest lift shaft size for 1 passenger
Cibes recommends the dimensions below, based on the Cibes Voyager V90 , for homes that want to save as much floor space as possible.
- Cabin size, width x depth: 710 mm x 815 mm
- Shaft size, width x depth: 1,000 x 900 mm (an area of 1 square metre)
- Maximum shaft height: 20 m, depending on the number of floors you want to serve
Home lift shaft size for a family of 3
Cibes recommends the dimensions below, based on the Cibes Voyager V90 , for long-term comfort for the whole family.
- Cabin size, width x depth: 1,010 mm x 915 mm
- Shaft size, width x depth: 1,300 x 1,000 mm (an area of 1.3 square metres)
- Maximum shaft height: 20 m, depending on the number of floors you want to serve
Shaft size for wheelchair users, seniors and people with disabilities
Cibes recommends the dimensions below, based on the Cibes Air , which works well as a lift for seniors or a lift for people with disabilities . This is the Cibes standard size for wheelchair users.
- Cabin size, width x depth: 1,100 mm x 1,600 mm
- Shaft size, width x depth: 1,600 x 1,460 mm (an area of 2.34 square metres)
- Maximum shaft height: 20 m, depending on the number of floors you want to serve
Shaft size for moving a standard hospital bed
Cibes recommends the dimensions below, based on the Cibes Extra , our largest size, which can take a standard hospital bed measuring 900 mm x 2,000 mm.
- Cabin size, width x depth: 1,405 mm x 2,480 mm
- Shaft size, width x depth: 1,825 x 2,556 mm (an area of 4.66 square metres)
- Maximum shaft height: 13 m, depending on the number of floors you want to serve
Looking at the shafts available on the market, most brands offer only 7-11 sizes to choose from, because of their production costs and because they have no factory of their own, which limits how much they can control output. At Cibes Lift, our home lifts come in as many as 41 sizes, covering virtually every customer requirement — and that is before counting another 4 extra-large special sizes that can move a bed for families caring for a bedridden patient.
41 shaft sizes, based on the Cibes Lift Voyager V90
More on shaft and cabin sizes for people with disabilities under the Ministerial Regulation
Shaft and cabin references suited to people with disabilities and the elderly follow the Ministerial Regulation on Facilities in Buildings for Persons with Disabilities and the Elderly, B.E. 2548 (2005)
“Clause 10 A lift usable by persons with disabilities and the elderly that takes the form of a lift cabin shall have the following characteristics:
(1) The cabin shall be not less than 1.60 metres wide and not less than 1.40 metres deep, or not less than 1.40 metres wide and not less than 1.60 metres deep, and not less than 2.30 metres high, and shall have a safety clear glass panel allowing visibility between the outside and the inside, not less than 20 centimetres wide, not less than 80 centimetres long, and not more than 1.10 metres above floor level.”
Cibes Lift offers more than 41 lift sizes to choose from, easy to install, no pit to dig and no machine room
Designing your lift shaft with Cibes Lift
Cibes Lift home lifts can be finished in a wide range of shaft colours, with more than 300 premium shades to choose from. We also offer design options around the control panel. Today, let us look at 6 of our most premium shaft colours.
- JANUARY4 – a black tone with a premium sand-grain texture and a subtle sparkle; a very specially selected colour
- QUARTZ1 – a brownish grey with a premium sand-grain texture and a subtle sparkle
- QUARTZ2 – a deep brown with a premium sand-grain texture and a subtle sparkle
- FEBRUARY6 – a light grey with a premium sand-grain texture and a subtle sparkle
- FEBRUARY5 – a dark grey with a premium sand-grain texture and a subtle sparkle
Cibes Lift home lifts come in luxurious, premium shaft colours — more than 300 shades in total
Buying a home lift is a long-term investment, so choose one for your whole family — for riding together with older relatives or family members with disabilities. Looking after the health and wellbeing of the people you live with matters. If you would like to know what a home lift costs, start with our article How much does a 2-storey home lift cost?
Cibes Lift is a lift technology driven by a screw system (Screw Driven-System). It installs in a home in just 3-7 days and needs servicing only once a year, which is why it has won people over around the world for more than 79 years.
