Manual wheelchairs, although a less common sight than the very popular mobility scooter, are still the choice for some individuals and as plenty of wheelchairs are manually maneuvered, either by the user or by assistance from another person they require a significant amount of effort when compared to a device which is completely motor driven.

Although a lot of floor surfaces make things easier for a wheelchair user, one type of surface that can pose a few problems is carpeted floors as they can make the job of moving a wheelchair across the carpet more difficult, it can require more effort for the person moving the wheelchair, this will be dependant of the type of carpet and to an observer it may not look too different but whoever is actually needing to move a wheelchair across a carpeted surface will often feel the extra effort required.

Although many public and private buildings do quite a lot to make their buildings as accessible as they can, there are still lots of places that may not understand that small differences like the actual flooring type can make quite a difference to a wheelchair user.

This is understandable as many people might immediately think or ramps, lifts, wide enough spaces to maneuver, automatic doors etc when thinking about accessibility, but it can be the less obvious things like carpeting and whether there is any in place or not and the type in place that can make a difference to how easy or difficult a situation may become for a wheelchair user while moving across a floor.

Although these difficulties can arise when needing to move through buildings other than your own home, you at least have the choice of being able to choose the right type of flooring within your own home, funds permitting of course, but this is at least one place where you can improve a situation relatively easy with wood, laminate, tile or lino flooring.

This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t choose to carpet your floors if you prefer carpets, and some carpets wont cause the same problems as others, it can also make a difference how professionally a carpet is laid, if it is stretched out properly and a professional job is done so that you dont get ripples appearing then this will make a difference to how well the wheelchair passes over it.

If you dont like the thought of wood, laminated or other flooring that may seem less homely and a bit cold, especially during our cooler months here in britain, dont force yourself to choose and live with this type of flooring, carpets are cosier and what a lot of people are already used to, but just make sure that you are selective of the type of carpet when choosing, that way you can still have comfortable and cosy flooring that lends itself to when you need to pass over it using your wheelchair.

When considering getting a stair lift installed either for yourself or for a relative it is a good idea to think about how long you might need it for.

Understandably its not always possible to estimate how long you might need one in place for, you might at first plan for a temporary situation and it ends up being in place for years, or think that you might need one in place long term and just a few months later you have no need for it.

If you consider getting a new stair lift fitted, the cost can be a good investment but if after a few months there is no longer a need for it then when it comes to having it removed and sold on you could be losing out on a substantial amount of your investment.

This will depend on who will buy it from you, basically some companies will offer to buy back the stair lift but at a much smaller amount than what you paid for it and if you or a relative only used it for a few months and it was new or nearly new at the time of installation then naturally you wont be happy to be offered a fraction of what you paid for the stair lift for it to be bought back from you.

Because of depreciation, its expected on most products that we buy that they lose value, some purchases lose value quicker than others, vehicles would be a good example of this, basically once purchased and driven off the forecourt a car or other vehicle is losing its original value through depreciation right after purchase.

So its important that you take this into consideration when thinking about getting a stair lift installed.

Hi everyone, just a quick update to say that i will soon update the site with new posts, although there were none published during march, but i hope to get some new content up soon, sorry for the lack of new content to read recently, i have been very busy, i hope that you continue to visit the site regularly and continue to contribute with your comments and questions.

Best Regards

John