Accessibility and Aging-in-Place Contractors

What to know before you hire

Grab bars, stairlifts, ramps, curbless showers, widened doorways, and first-floor bedroom conversions. This work sits at the intersection of construction and clinical need, and not every contractor understands both sides.

Chevy Chase has some of the oldest housing stock in Montgomery County, and that shapes this category more than anything else. Plaster over lath, undersized original framing and bathrooms built to 1930s dimensions all make a grab bar installation a structural question rather than a hardware question. A bar screwed into tile with plastic anchors will hold a towel and will not hold a person falling. Ask what the contractor is anchoring into and how they will find it.

Bethesda and Potomac add a different problem, which is scale. Larger homes on larger lots often mean a long approach from the driveway, split levels, and a primary suite well away from the kitchen. The modification that matters most in those houses is frequently not in the bathroom at all. It is a safe route from the car to a room the person can actually live in on one floor.

Montgomery County permitting is its own workstream. Structural changes, electrical for a stairlift circuit and some ramp construction can require permits and inspection. Decide explicitly whether the contractor pulls them or you do. A contractor who suggests skipping the permit is telling you something about how they will handle the rest of the job.

How to verify a provider yourself

Home improvement work on an existing residence under a contract of five hundred dollars or more requires a Maryland Home Improvement Commission license. Maryland law also requires that the contract be in writing and signed by both parties before work begins or money changes hands.

1. Ask for the MHIC license number and the exact business name it is held under.
2. Search that number yourself in the Maryland Department of Labor licensing query. The result shows status, expiration and disciplinary history.
3. Confirm general liability coverage. Maryland law sets a minimum of five hundred thousand dollars for licensed home improvement contractors under Business Regulation section 8-302.1, raised from fifty thousand effective June 1, 2024.
4. Ask separately about workers compensation for anyone who will be on your property.
5. Ask whether anyone on the crew holds the CAPS designation and who specifically will be on site.

Maryland Home Improvement Commission: search the public registry or call 410-230-6309.

Worth knowing: the Commission's own published requirements page still cites the old fifty thousand dollar figure. The statute is the controlling number.

Questions to ask

• What is your MHIC license number?
• Are you a Certified Aging-in-Place Specialist, and who on your crew holds that designation?
• Will you pull the permit, or is that on me?
• Do you provide a written assessment before quoting?
• What is the warranty on labor, and how long on materials?
• Have you done this specific modification in a home of this age before?

What should make you pause

• A quote given over the phone without anyone measuring the room or watching the person move through it.
• A contractor who treats a grab bar as a hardware install rather than a blocking and anchoring question.
• Reluctance to put the labor warranty in writing with a stated period.
• Any suggestion that a permit is unnecessary for structural or electrical work.

Accessibility and Home Modifications providers

This directory is being built. A business appears here once we have confirmed its license with the state register that issues it, whether or not the business has heard of us. A verification badge is separate and narrower: it appears only after the business has signed a listing agreement, a current certificate of insurance is on file, and the credential has been confirmed on a stated date.

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Common questions