Where falls happen in a house
The CDC counts about one in four adults 65 and older reporting a fall each year, and most hip fractures come from falls inside the home, on level ground. Level ground is the useful part. The fall usually starts at a rug edge, a cord across the path, a threshold strip, or a dark trip to the bathroom at night.
So falls are rarely bad luck. They come from particular things in particular rooms, and you can find each one by walking the house with a checklist and meeting it the way someone with a cane or a walker does.
What we look for
On the assessment we walk every room and every route a person takes on an ordinary day. Bed to bathroom. Chair to kitchen. Front door to the car. We look for loose rugs and runners, cords and clutter where people walk, raised thresholds, slick floors near water, steps without a rail on both sides, and the spots where the light runs out.
We also look hard at the places where a person changes position, because that's where balance goes. Getting up from the bed. Sitting down on the toilet. Stepping out of the tub. Each of those spots gets a grab bar or a rail in the written plan if it needs one.
What gets fixed first
The report ranks every problem by danger. The bathroom, the entry and the night path to the bathroom land near the top in almost every house, so those small fixes go first. Larger work, like new flooring or a shower conversion, follows in the order the report sets.
Taking up a runner and leveling one transition can do more for your parent than a remodel. When the small fix is enough, the report says so and we price only that.
Questions families ask
Can you make a house safe after someone has already fallen?
Yes, and the fall itself is useful information. It usually points straight at one problem, so we start there and then walk the rest of the house, because the next fall rarely happens in the same spot.
Do we need to remodel to prevent falls?
Usually not at first. Rails, grab bars, light and clearing trip hazards are small jobs, and they cover most of what makes people fall at home. The report tells you which larger projects are worth the money and which you can skip.
The fix
Most falls trace back to the floor, the light or the bathroom, so the fixes come from those three trades. The work lives under flooring and fall prevention, with help from lighting and home safety and bathroom safety and remodeling.