Residential Elevator

if you build on piles a lift is a necessity doesn’t have to be fancy they are very common

Anyone scared of getting trapped in one of these?

My wife and bought a house with a safe room in the basement. The safe room has cinder block walls, a heavy metal ceiling with I beams, and a heavy metal door with heavy hinges that you can't easily pry out the hinge pin like you can on typical doors. The previous owner somehow stupidly had the heavy metal door lock from outside of the safe room with no way to open a locked door from inside the safe room. We had just bought the house, it was still empty and my wife and I walked in the safe room and thank God we didn't shut the door as it was set to lock. No cell signal inside the safe room. It would have possibly been a death trap if we would have shut that door. I immediately replaced the door lock with a proper lock keyed on the outside and manual lock mechanism on the inside. Plus I immediately put all kinds of lighting, AC power, Wi-Fi node, flashlights, power tools (impact driver, angle grinder, circular saw with metal & masonry blades, Sawzall, sledge hammers, crowbars, etc), emergency food and water inside the safe room after getting the crap scared out of us. I know I overreacted on equipping the safe room for escaping it and survival, but it was just too scary almost getting trapped in it.

After that experience, we had talked about possibly putting an elevator in the house, but we are so claustrophobic now after our safe room scare, that we probably would never install an elevator if there is no way to get out of one quickly if it gets stuck with the doors closed.

Neighbor had one installed when he built his house in preparation or his mother to live with them. She moved in then passed away shortly afterwards so they only used it a few times. Seemed to be pricey but worked as intended.