A small home lift from Lift Shop takes up less floor space than most people expect. Standard cabins start at around 900 x 1000 mm, pits at just 150 mm. Designed by Lift Shop, Italian-made, and installed by Australia’s largest dedicated home lift specialist.
The honest way to judge a small lift is to stand inside one.
30+ Years · 11,500+ Lifts Installed · 8-Year Warranty
A Lift Shop home lift can occupy less than one square metre of floor space. Standard cabins start at around 900 x 1000 mm, pits at just 150 mm and headroom at 2400 mm.
Most homeowners overestimate the space a lift needs because they picture a commercial lift. A Lift Shop home lift is a different machine. The small A-Series suits the tightest shafts because it needs no separate machine room and only a shallow 150 mm pit – about the height of a single stair riser. Its hydraulic pump lives in a slim cabinet placed discreetly beside the shaft, and Italian engineering allows flexibility in cabin dimensions to fit your exact shaft opening, rather than forcing your home to fit the lift.
That flexibility is the heart of it. Across our residential lift range, each series is engineered around a different kind of space, and the A-Series home lift is the one we reach for when the brief says “make it fit”. Lift Shop is Australian-owned, locally engineered and serviced, with 11,500+ lifts installed over 30+ years and 1,200 lifts sold annually – very few tight-space questions are ones we haven’t already solved.
Each Lift Shop series has a different indicative footprint. The A-Series suits the tightest shafts because it needs no separate machine room and only a 150 mm pit. The C-Series has the smallest standard cabin, at around 900 x 1000 mm. The E-Series trades a little more floor space for capacity and speed.
The table below shows the published planning minimums for each series. Every home is different – door type (swing or sliding) affects pit depth slightly and influences the final shaft dimensions – so treat these as planning figures and let our design team confirm the exact numbers for your project. For what’s involved in building the shaft itself, see our guide to lift shaft dimensions and construction.
| Series | Drive | Minimum internal shaft (approx.) | Cabin sizes (approx.) | Pit depth | Headroom |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A-Series | Hydraulic (cabinet beside shaft) | 1000 x 1000 mm (1000 x 1200 mm for the larger cabin) | 1000 x 1000 mm or 1000 x 1200 mm | 150 mm | 2400 – 2750 mm (door type dependent) |
| C-Series | Electric traction, machine-room-less | around 900 x 1000 mm | around 900 x 1000 mm | 150 mm | from 2500 mm |
| E-Series | Gearless traction | Sized per project – ask for a tailored recommendation | Larger cabins – up to 7 persons (450 kg) | 270 mm | from 2750 mm |
Published planning figures – final dimensions depend on model and door type, and lift shafts are built to a tolerance of ±5 mm.
A small home lift does not need its own room. Lift Shop lifts are regularly fitted into stairwell voids, stacked-cupboard spaces, room corners and garages. The A-Series in particular is engineered for retrofits, with flexible cabin dimensions made to fit your exact shaft opening – the lift adapts to the house, not the other way around.
The stairwell void is the classic answer. The vertical path already exists, the structure already surrounds it, and a lift running through the void reclaims space the staircase was already using.
A stack of cupboards gives up one cupboard per floor and returns whole-home access. In one Fitzroy residence, the lift sits behind a seamless wall of veneer cabinetry – revealed only when needed and invisible when not.
A corner of a room, especially with a glass shaft, keeps light moving through the space while the lift quietly does its work.
The garage is often the simplest route in a retrofit – travelling from garage level to the living levels above without touching the main floor plan at all.
Whatever the spot, our design team reviews your shaft dimensions and recommends the configuration that maximises usable space.
Bring your floor plan – we’ll tell you on the spot whether it fits.
Narrow blocks are where a narrow home lift earns its keep. A Lift Shop A-Series can be configured with swing or sliding doors, and through-car layouts – enter on one side, exit on the other – have solved some of our tightest renovations. The lift works with a narrow floor plan rather than against it.
Terrace homes and three-storey townhouses share the same problem: generous vertical space, jealously guarded floor space. A small home lift changes the arithmetic. Because the A-Series needs only a shallow 150 mm pit and no machine room, it retrofits into homes that were never designed for a lift – and because cabin dimensions are flexible, the shaft can follow the space you actually have, not a catalogue standard.
Queensland homes bring their own version of tight – sloping blocks, raised homes, post-war floor plans. If that’s you, see our small residential lifts for tight spaces in Queensland.
When there’s no space indoors, the lift can go outside. An external shaft built against the house delivers the same small home lift with almost no impact on the interior floor plan – an approach Lift Shop has used where every indoor square metre was already spoken for.
An external installation still needs a proper shaft – who builds it, and how, is covered in our shaft construction guide linked above – but it frees the floor plan entirely, and a glass shaft on an outside wall can become a feature rather than a fixture. For the full picture, see our guide to outdoor home lifts, or talk to a Lift Shop consultant about what your site allows.
No. A small Lift Shop lift travels at the same 0.30 m/s as our standard cabins – the E-Series reaches 0.60 m/s – and the A-Series carries 4 – 6 persons across up to six floors (15.1 m of travel). A small footprint changes where the lift fits, not what it can do.
Inside the cabin, small is a design brief, not a compromise. A full-height mirror makes the space feel larger than expected; glass keeps light moving; considered finishes do the rest – the same Italian design language as every lift we sell. For a quiet, machine-room-less option in the smallest standard cabin, look at the C-Series electric home lift.
Every lift is installed to Australian Standards, includes a GSM emergency phone and In-Cabin Self-Rescue, and carries Lift Shop’s 8-year warranty as standard.
Small doesn’t change the price logic. Lift Shop home lifts start from $44,900, and the A-Series – the series best suited to narrow shafts – from $46,900. Pricing includes supply, installation, testing, handover and the 8-year warranty. Shaft and builder works are quoted separately by your builder.
For current prices by series and a full breakdown of what’s included, see our guide to home lift prices in Australia.
Three real projects show how a Lift Shop lift adapts to tight spaces: a 600 mm x 1120 mm through-car cabin fitted into a tight renovation, a lift hidden behind veneer cabinetry in Fitzroy, and a custom E2 inside a round rendered shaft in Armadale. Every one is a lived-in Australian home, not a showroom concept.
Tight Space? No Problem – A renovation with almost nowhere to put a lift. We delivered a through-car cabin covering 3300 mm of travel, housed in a custom glass shaft that lets natural light pour through.
Hiding in Plain Sight – In this Fitzroy residence the lift disappears behind a seamless wall of veneer cabinetry, revealed only when needed. A full-height rear mirror makes the cabin feel larger and brighter than its footprint suggests.
Square Peg in a Round Hole – An Armadale new build put a decorative round shaft at the centre of a wraparound staircase, and a custom E2 at the centre of the shaft. Proof that a tight brief and bold architecture can share the same square metre.
Stand inside the smallest cabin before you decide.
Specifying for a client? Get shaft drawings and preparation details for your documentation: lift shaft construction guide · lift door preparation guide · or get in touch via our contact form.
Straight answers on small home lift sizes, footprints, costs and installation in tight spaces across Australia.
Lift Shop's smallest standard cabins are around 900 x 1000 mm (C-Series) and 1000 x 1000 mm (A-Series), and the A-Series suits the tightest shafts because it needs no separate machine room and only a shallow 150 mm pit.
Allow roughly one square metre of floor space, plus a pit of 150-270 mm depending on the series, and headroom from about 2400 mm at the top landing. The A-Series needs approximately 1000 x 1000 mm of internal shaft space; the C-Series around 900 x 1000 mm. Our design team reviews your dimensions and recommends the configuration that maximises usable space.
Often, yes - a stairwell void is one of the most common homes for a small lift, because the vertical path and surrounding structure already exist. Lift Shop lifts have also been fitted into stacked-cupboard spaces, room corners and garages. Our team can advise from your builder's plans or a site inspection.
No. The C-Series is a machine-room-less electric lift, and the A-Series hydraulic uses a slim separate cabinet that houses the pump and sits discreetly beside the shaft. There is no dedicated machine room to build - a large part of why these lifts fit homes that were never designed for one.
No. Lift Shop home lifts travel at 0.30 m/s across the A and C Series regardless of cabin size, and the E-Series reaches 0.30-0.60 m/s. The A-Series serves up to six floors (15.1 m of travel), so a small footprint doesn't limit how far - or how comfortably - you travel.
Lift Shop home lifts start from $44,900, with the A-Series - best suited to narrow shafts - from $46,900. The price includes supply, installation, testing, handover and an 8-year warranty. For current prices by series, see our home lift cost guide. Shaft and builder works are quoted separately by your builder.
Yes. Where indoor space is committed, the lift can run in an external shaft built against the house - a popular approach in renovations where every indoor square metre is spoken for. Talk to a Lift Shop consultant about what your site allows, or visit a showroom to see the options in person.
A stairlift occupies the staircase itself rather than floor space, so in one sense it's the smallest option - but it narrows the usable stair, carries one person at a time, and is usually removed when the home is sold. A small home lift needs about one square metre, yet carries several people, luggage or a wheelchair, and adds a permanent feature to the home.
Visit our Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane or Perth showrooms – Canberra opening soon. We also install across Adelaide, the Gold Coast and the ACT.
