Accessibility installation and service across Bellevue — from the split-levels of Lake Hills to the hillside lots in Somerset and Newport Hills.
Bellevue has two very different kinds of house and they need two different conversations. The neighborhoods built out in the 1950s through the 1970s — Lake Hills, Bridle Trails, Newport Hills — are full of split-levels and daylight ramblers, where the half-flights between levels are exactly the kind of thing that gets difficult first. The newer luxury construction closer to downtown and along the Somerset slope tends to be three full stories, where the issue is distance rather than awkwardness.
We install pneumatic vacuum elevators, hydraulic elevators, stairlifts and hillside trams across all of it. Which one is right depends on how your house is stacked, how steep the lot is, and whether the problem is inside the house or getting up to it. Outside Seattle city limits the elevator permit itself comes from Washington State L&I rather than the city, while the city issues the building permit. We handle both.
A lot of Eastside accessibility problems don’t look like a standard staircase. We spend most of our time on the ones that don’t.
Often yes, though it usually needs more thought than a conventional two-story. Split-levels stagger their floors by half-flights, so the elevator is typically planned to serve the two main living levels rather than every landing. We look at how the levels actually stack before recommending anything.
The City of Bellevue issues the building permit for the structural work. The elevator permit itself comes from Washington State Labor & Industries, because Bellevue is not one of the two cities in Washington that kept their own elevator code. We manage both parts of that.
Frequently, yes — that kind of grade is exactly what an inclined tram is built for. The deciding factors are the slope profile, soil conditions, and access for the build. Our hillside tram page covers how they work and what a site needs.
Yes. Washington requires residential elevators to be installed with appropriate seismic provisions, and we build that in as standard rather than treating it as an upgrade. Our permit and seismic guide explains the requirements.
We’ll walk the house or the slope, tell you which option actually fits, and give you a clear scope with no surprises in it.
