Accessibility installation and service across Mercer Island — including the waterfront lots where the hardest level change isn’t inside the house at all.
Mercer Island is the clearest example on the Eastside of a place where accessibility is as much about the lot as the house. Plenty of island homes sit well above the waterline with a long run of steps down to a dock or beach — and for a lot of owners, that stretch becomes unusable years before anything inside the house does.
Inside, the island’s housing stock runs from 1950s and 1960s ramblers and split-levels through to substantial new construction, so we fit everything from a single stairlift to a full residential elevator. Outside, an inclined hillside tram is frequently the thing that gives people their waterfront back. 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.
Steep bank, difficult access, soil that turns out to be fill — that’s a normal tram job for us rather than an exception.
Longer than most people expect — runs of well over a hundred feet are routine on waterfront property. What matters more than raw length is the slope profile, whether it changes partway down, and what the soil is doing. Our tram cost calculator lets you model a run by length and site conditions.
It’s the normal condition on lake property and it’s designed around rather than avoided. A tram track is engineered to the actual profile of the slope, so a grade that steepens near the water is a design input, not a disqualifier. Our writeup of a lake house tram installation shows a real example.
The city handles the building permit; the elevator permit comes from Washington State L&I. Mercer Island is not one of the two Washington cities that retained their own elevator code, so the state is the elevator authority. We manage both.
In many cases yes, particularly where there’s a daylight lower level. A pneumatic vacuum elevator needs no pit and can often be placed with far less structural work than owners expect. Our residential elevator guide explains the options.
Send us photos of the slope or the staircase and we’ll tell you what’s realistic before anyone comes out.
