What Remodelers Are Actually Building - Grab Bars, Curbless Showers, and the Data Behind the Aging-in-Place Punch List

NAHB just released a piece of data that, on the surface, looks like bad news. The share of remodelers doing aging-in-place work dropped to its lowest point since the association started asking the question back in 2004 - 56%, down from where it's been for most of the last two decades.

Here's the part that actually matters more: that dip has almost nothing to do with whether clients want this work. Client familiarity with aging-in-place concepts sits at 96%. Client receptiveness - how open people are when a remodeler actually raises the idea - is 99%, with only 2% saying no outright. Ninety-one percent of clients doing this work say they're planning ahead, not reacting to a crisis. Those numbers haven't moved. What's moved is the number of remodelers currently converting that demand into a signed job, and the likely reason is the same thing squeezing the rest of the remodeling market: high interest rates and general economic caution, not a change of heart from clients.

If you're a builder or a remodeler, that gap is the headline. The market for this work is still there, arguably as strong as it's ever been by every demand-side measure NAHB tracks. What's changed is how many of your competitors are actually stepping into it right now.

The Numbers Behind the Dip

A little context on where this data comes from: NAHB has periodically asked its Remodeling Market Index survey respondents about aging-in-place work since 2004. The most recent wave puts the share of remodelers doing this work at 56% - the lowest recorded in that entire span.

At the same time, the demand-side numbers tell a completely different story. Ninety-six percent of remodelers say most or all of their clients are already familiar with the concept of aging-in-place modifications - that share has held at 90% or above since 2018. When remodelers do raise the idea, 48% of clients are very receptive and another 51% are somewhat receptive. Only 2% say no. That's a combined receptiveness rate of 99%.

So the honest read isn't "demand is falling." It's "a softer remodeling market overall is pulling participation down across the board, and aging-in-place work is getting caught in that pullback even though the people asking for it haven't gone anywhere."

What Clients Are Actually Asking For

When aging-in-place work does happen, it isn't usually a gut renovation. The most consistent finding across NAHB's surveys on this topic is that the work is targeted and specific: grab bars are the single most common project, followed by curbless showers, comfort-height toilets, and widened doorways. Some of that same territory - the everyday fall risks a home assessment turns up - overlaps directly with what shows up on these punch lists.

That specificity matters for how you talk to clients about this work. Homeowners often assume "aging-in-place remodel" means tearing out a bathroom or adding a full addition. Most of the time, it doesn't. It means a handful of well-executed, well-placed changes - which is a much easier yes for a client to give, and a much easier project for you to scope, price, and complete without disrupting the rest of the house.

Why Clients Bring This Up Before You Do

One number worth sitting with: 65% of aging-in-place work is client-initiated, not contractor-suggested. Most of the time, the person across the table already knows what they want before you say a word about it.

That flips the usual sales dynamic. You're not convincing someone this work matters. You're responding to someone who already believes it matters and is deciding whether you're the person who can execute it correctly - blocking placed where it will actually hold weight, a curbless shower that drains properly and doesn't leak into the subfloor, a doorway widened without compromising a load-bearing wall, a toilet height that actually serves the person using it. That's the part the demand numbers can't tell you. Ninety-nine percent receptiveness doesn't mean much if the execution is wrong.

The Real Gap Isn't Demand. It's Training.

Put those two halves of the data together, and a clear picture forms. Client demand for aging-in-place work is at or near record levels by every measure that isn't "number of jobs currently being built." The number of remodelers actually building this work dipped for reasons that have nothing to do with whether people want it.

That's an opening. In a remodeling market where overall participation has pulled back, a specialty where client receptiveness sits at 99% is exactly where a trained professional wants to be positioned — not because the market is exploding, but because it's durable. Clients keep asking for this work in good markets and soft ones alike.

CAPS II and CAPS III are built around exactly the project types this data points to: grab bar blocking and placement, curbless shower design and drainage, doorway clearances, fixture heights and reach ranges. I'm not teaching to a hypothetical market. I'm teaching to what remodelers are already being asked to build, whether the broader market is up or down in a given year.

If you've been on the fence about whether aging-in-place work deserves a real spot in your service line, this is the data point to sit with: nearly every client you'd raise it with is ready to say yes. CAPS certification training is where you learn to execute that work in a way that holds up - literally - to the body that's using it.

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Fritzi Gros-Daillon, MS, CAPS, SHSS, is an NAHB Master Instructor and 2019 NAHB Educator of the Year. She teaches CAPS courses nationwide and consults with families and professionals on aging-in-place home assessment and modification.