Hallway grab bars

Hallway grab bars for the walk to the bathroom at night

The walk from the bed to the bathroom happens in the dark, often half awake, and sometimes right after standing up too fast. It's also the stretch of the house with the least to hold on to. A grab bar or two along the way gives a steady hand where there isn't one now. We install them for $185 per bar, with all mounting hardware included.

Who a hallway grab bar helps

People who get up at night, people who feel lightheaded when they first stand, and anyone who already trails a hand along the wall or reaches for door frames and furniture on the way. Hallway bars also help after a surgery, when someone uses a walker or cane part of the time and walks without it the rest.

Where hallway bars go

Walk the route yourself, or watch the person who uses it, and notice where a hand reaches out. Those are the spots. The usual ones:

• Just outside the bedroom door. The first few steps after getting up are often the least steady.
• Along a bare stretch of wall with no furniture to lean on, especially in a long hallway.
• At a turn or a corner, where you change direction and your balance shifts.
• Beside the bathroom door, often as a vertical bar on the wall next to the frame, to hold while you open the door and step through.
• At a change in flooring, such as carpet to tile, where a toe can catch.

One or two well-placed bars usually do more than a long row of them. We'll help you choose.

How high a hallway bar should be

The 2010 ADA Standards have no rule for grab bars in hallways. The closest guide is their handrail height for stairs and ramps: 34 to 38 inches above the walking surface, with at least 1 1/2 inches of space behind the rail for your fingers (sections 505.4 and 505.5). That's a reasonable place to start. In a home, the better rule is the person: a bar where their hand rests with the elbow slightly bent is one they can push down on and pull against.

If more than one person will use the bar, tell us. We'll find a height that works for both, or suggest a vertical bar, which works at any height.

Hallway walls: drywall and studs

Most hallway walls are drywall, but what's behind it varies with the age and type of home:

• Drywall on wood studs: most newer homes. Drywall alone won't hold a bar, so the stud layout decides where a bar can fasten directly.
• Drywall on metal studs: common in condos, apartments, and commercial buildings. A thin steel stud doesn't hold a screw the way wood does, so it calls for a hollow-wall anchor.
• Plaster (older homes): plaster over wood lath or block is hard, can crack if drilled carelessly, and can hide old repairs, so we check it before we drill.
• Concrete block: common in Central Florida, inside and out. We check it before we drill, because the hollow cells inside the block matter.

Where there's a stud or solid backing in the right spot, we fasten into it. Where there isn't, we use commercial-grade grab bar fasteners, rated by the maker for up to 600 lbs in drywall with tile and made to exceed building codes and ADA guidelines, so a bar can go exactly where it's needed even without a stud. If we ever use a different fastener, it's comparable or better. In a hallway, a stud often lands close to where the bar should go, but we won't move a bar to the wrong spot just to hit one.

Choose a finish that matches your door hardware or light fixtures and a hallway bar looks like it belongs. Smooth bars are fine in a dry hallway; you don't need the textured grip a shower bar has.

Our hallway work, honestly

Our team has installed grab bars across Central Florida, first as HandyMangum and now as Grab Bar Heroes. Here's how we'd plan yours: by walking the route with you before anything goes on the wall.

What hallway grab bars cost

$185 per grab bar, installed. A bar outside the bedroom and one beside the bathroom door is $370 in labor.

• Included: installing each grab bar, with all mounting hardware and heavy-duty anchors rated for the bar
• Included: a placement walk-through before we drill, from techs who know the ADA guidelines
• Included: a lifetime workmanship warranty and a free one-year check-up
• Included: an itemized invoice listing each bar, where it went, and the cost, for HSA/FSA, VA, or Medicaid paperwork
• Most home grab bars in Florida are sales-tax free (bars $100 or less).
• Not included: the grab bar itself. Bring your own, or we can supply one at extra cost.

See full pricing or get a free estimate.

Walk-through and warranty

Before we drill, your tech walks through each spot with you: who will use the bar, which hand they lead with, and where their hand naturally goes. We hold the bar up to the wall, adjust, and mark it only once you're happy with it. For a hallway, that means walking the route together, ideally at the pace it's walked at night.

Every bar we install comes with our lifetime workmanship warranty for as long as you own your home or building: if a bar loosens because of how we installed it, we fix it free. The bar itself is covered by its maker's warranty, and damage, misuse, and wall problems that were already there aren't covered. We also come back for a free inspection at one year.

Hallway grab bar questions

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