Model: 4-Person (750-pound capacity)
Track: 160' at 32° and high off the ground
Area: Lake Rosseau
Year: 2012
“With the lift,
all the disadvantages of living high off the water
become the advantages of living high off the water.”
“It has transformed the property.”
“We just step off our lawn onto the lift, and down to the water. So the height, instead of being an encumbrance, is a benefit, because we still get the spectacular view, with the water access.”
“The way John incorporated the lift into the hillside was as unobtrusive as possible. You barely notice it from the water, and he took great care harmonizing it with its surroundings.”
“It’s convenient, it’s reliable, and it will enhance your waterfront experience.”
“The lift takes care of all the obstacles. It means that anyone can go to the water any time.”
“It was a very beautiful property, but it wasn’t for everyone. Now it is.”
There was no way for owners to use this property without a lift. Lovegrove Construction invited us to design a solution. On my first site visit I walked the cliff edge and there was only one place to put the lift, only one line top to bottom. It turned out that the line connected good building sites at each end. Sweet.
Between the design and construction phase Lovegrove built a large portion of the dock, a massive cantilevered structure as the lake bottom falls away at the shoreline.
The owner's wanted us to locate the top station a flight of stairs down from the top of the cliff. We designed and built it with the future in mind, it can be converted to a 3-station lift to access the top level of the boathouse when that gets built or even adding a section at the top with a flatter pitch to make it a 4-station running all the way from the cottage elevation to this elevation to the top of the boathouse to the dock. The PLC controller makes this possible.
We built the lift to land inside the perimeter of the dock, then Lovegrove Construction enclosed it. The long term plan is to build a boathouse on the dock.
Looking up the track from the dock.
The steep terrain required 26-foot legs on the lower part of the lift, the highest we’ve built. Our track-mounted installation hoist makes challenging lifts like these possible.
At two places, the water is under both sides of the lift, with the legs securely pinned to exposed rocks in the lake.
Even though this is one of our most visible lifts, high off the ground and traversing the slope, when I went out in a boat to take pictures I could not see it until I was with a few hundred meters even though staircases on either side were visible from the other side of the lake.
Even before the lift was finished it was being used to carry men and materials to finish the dock. Later on, it will be used to help build the boathouse.