Families ask what happens at one of these and whether it is a sales visit with a clipboard. Fair question, so here is exactly what it involves.
What it is not
It is not a product demonstration and there is no obligation attached. We do these free, and the outcome is regularly that somebody needs a few hundred dollars of equipment rather than anything we would make money on.
If a visit starts with a catalog rather than a walk through the house, you are in a sales call. Our vetting guide covers how to tell in advance.
It starts with the person, not the building
The first part is questions, and the useful ones are specific.
What has become difficult? Not the diagnosis, the tasks. Getting out of bed, the stairs, standing from the toilet, stepping into the shower, getting to the car.
Has there been a fall? Where, doing what, what time of day. The CDC notes fewer than half of older adults who fall mention it, so this question gets asked directly rather than in passing.
What are they avoiding? Rooms that have stopped being used tell you more than anything else in the house.
Who else lives there, and who helps?
Then the walk
Ideally with the person, at the time of day they find hardest, doing what they normally do rather than describing it.
The entrance. Steps, threshold height, handrails and whether they extend past the bottom step, path condition, lighting, where the car stops.
Hallways and doorways. Clear opening widths, approach space, turning room, level changes at every transition.
The stairs. Rise, run, width at the narrowest point, handrails both sides, what the treads are made of, lighting at both ends, what is stored on them.
The bathroom. Toilet height, what they hold when standing, tub or shower, the step over, where they reach, floor surface, door swing direction.
The bedroom. Bed height, the route to the bathroom at night, lighting reachable from bed, space beside the bed for a transfer.
The kitchen. Reach ranges, whether a stool is being used, somewhere to sit.
Everywhere. Rugs, cables, lighting levels, contrast, chair heights, pets.
What usually comes out of it
This is the part that surprises people. The most common findings are not equipment.
- Lighting, particularly on the route to the bathroom at night.
- Rugs and floor transitions.
- A chair somebody cannot easily stand from.
- A handrail that stops at the bottom step instead of past it.
- A toilet two inches too low.
- Grab bars in the wrong place, or fixed into plaster.
- A threshold at the door nobody had noticed.
Most of that is under a few hundred dollars, and it addresses more risk than any single large purchase. Our order of work is the sequence we suggest.
Measurements taken
Whatever the situation needs: doorway clear openings, stair dimensions, rise at the entrance, turning space, toilet height, tub edge height.
You should get those numbers whether or not you buy anything. They are useful to a builder, an occupational therapist or another supplier, and a company that will not leave them is treating the survey as a sales asset.
What a good report looks like
Findings with measurements. Photographs. What each finding means in practice. Options with costs, including the cheap ones. A suggested sequence rather than a single package.
For funding applications the language matters, because a scope written the way a program expects is worth considerably more than the same job described loosely. We write those at no charge, and our funding guide covers which programs want what.
Where it fits alongside a clinical assessment
An occupational therapist assesses the person; we assess the building. They are not substitutes and the OT assessment is the more valuable of the two where one is available.
If an OT report exists, hand it over. It is the best document a supplier can be given. Our assessment guide explains who does what.
Who should be there
The person it concerns, first. Not only the adult child arranging it.
A family member is useful as a second pair of eyes and for describing the bad days, which people minimize in front of professionals. But somebody has to watch the person actually move through the house, and that cannot be done by proxy.
How to book one
Free, no obligation, and the honest outcome is sometimes that you do not need us. The CDC’s STEADI resources are worth reading beforehand, and anything on the cheap end of the resulting list ships free from our online shop.
How long it takes
An hour for most houses, longer where stairs are complicated or a bathroom project is in question. Less than that and somebody has not walked the property.
It is not a rushed visit and it should not feel like one. If a surveyor is checking a phone between rooms, that tells you something.
What to have ready
- A list of what has become difficult, written before we arrive.
- Any occupational therapy or physiotherapy notes.
- A note of any falls, including the ones nobody reported.
- The person themselves, in the shoes they normally wear.
- Any walking aid they use, because getting around with it in hand is part of the assessment.
Written beforehand matters. People forget things in the moment and remember them after the visit.
What we will tell you that a salesperson will not
That lighting and rugs matter more than anything we sell. That a grab bar is frequently the answer rather than a lift. That the laundry could move downstairs for the cost of a plumber’s morning. That occasionally this house will not work.
We have left houses having recommended two hundred dollars of equipment. That is a normal outcome rather than a failed visit.
Review it annually
Circumstances change and so do houses. Walk it again yearly, and after any change in health, medication, vision or mobility.
The CDC’s STEADI resources are the reference to read alongside it, and our room-by-room checklist is the version you can do yourself in the meantime.
Why it is free
A reasonable question. Because a proportion of these visits produce work and most do not, and because a company that charges for the survey has an incentive to find something.
The CDC reports falls as the leading cause of injury death for adults 65 and over, and most of what prevents them is inexpensive. We would rather be the company somebody calls when the larger thing is eventually needed.
Everything at the cheap end of the list ships free from our online shop.
What to do with the report
Do the free items that week: lighting, rugs, cables, furniture moved off routes. Then the inexpensive equipment. Then get quotes for anything structural, from more than one company.
Keep the measurements and photographs regardless. They are useful to a builder, an occupational therapist, a funding application or another supplier, and they save repeating the exercise. Our order of work is the sequence we suggest.