Install Grab Bars

A $30 bar and a stud finder prevent the fall that ends a senior's independence. Offer it as a one-hour visit, not a home project.

CategoryThe Vulnerable

Time1 hr

Cost$30

ModeAlone · With a friend

One fall in the shower is often the last day someone lives in their own house. Everything after it is a hospital, then a facility.

A steel bar into two studs takes twenty minutes. Say it that way when you offer, so it doesn’t sound like admitting she’s old.

What you'll need

I've got a drill and an hour on Saturday. Want me to put a bar in by the shower? Takes about twenty minutes.

Into studs or with proper anchors. A bar that pulls out of drywall is worse than no bar.
No suction-cup bars. They fail, and people trust them.
While you're there, look at the throw rugs and the hallway bulbs. That's where most falls actually start.

Even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. — Isaiah 46:4