She is discharged Friday. There are four granite steps up to the front door, a turn at the top, and a rail on one side only. The hospital has told you to arrange transport. The transport company has told you they are curb to curb.

Nobody in this industry publishes what it costs to solve that. We are going to.

What does stair assistance cost?

$200 per visit. Two trained staff and a stair chair, up or down, however many flights the home has.

One price whether it is three steps or three floors, because the work is the same work. We confirm it on the phone before you book, and it does not change when we arrive and see the staircase.

If somebody is going out and coming back on the same day, that is two visits. Most families booking an appointment are looking at $400 for the stairs plus the ride.

What does that actually buy?

• Two people. This is not a one person job and anybody who tells you otherwise is the reason for a large share of the injuries in this category.
• A stair chair. The person sits, is strapped in, and is carried in a controlled way with a member of staff above and below.
• Someone who has done it before, in houses like yours. Turning flights, narrow triple decker stairs and granite stoops each need a different approach.
• An honest answer in advance. If we look at your photos and think a staircase is not safe to work, we tell you before you book rather than on the day.

Is that cheaper than a stairlift?

For most families asking this question, yes, by a very long way.

Installed stairlift pricing for 2026 runs $2,000 to $8,500 for a straight staircase and $7,500 to $15,000 or more for a curved one , with labor alone at $1,000 to $5,000, according to HomeGuide's cost research. A curved or turning flight is custom built, and that is where the money goes.

So a single stair assistance visit is somewhere between one and five percent of a curved stairlift. You would need to book us around forty times before a straight stairlift at the bottom of its range started to look competitive, and around seventy five times for a curved one.

When is a stairlift the better answer?

We would rather say this plainly than sell you something you do not need.

If the person needs to move between floors every day, indefinitely , buy the stairlift. Living in one half of your own house is not a life, and no visiting service fixes that.

Stair assistance is the better answer when the need is occasional or temporary . A few appointments a month. A recovery from surgery that will end. A discharge this Friday with a stairlift assessment still weeks away. A rented home or a historic house nobody can alter. Or a staircase a stairlift company has already looked at and declined.

A lot of families come to us having been quoted $12,000 for a curved stairlift for a mother who has two appointments a month. That is $4,800 a year with us and no construction, no landlord conversation and nothing screwed into a hundred year old staircase.

Can you do it on any staircase?

No, and we will not pretend otherwise.

Very narrow winding flights, stairs with no rail and significant height, and some outdoor steps in ice are situations where we will tell you it is not safe. In those cases we will say what would make it workable, whether that is a temporary rail, a different door, or a ramp at a side entrance.

What we need to know before quoting: how many steps, whether they are inside or outside, whether the flight turns, whether there is a rail and on which side, and roughly what the person weighs. A photo from the bottom of the stairs answers most of it in one go.

What about getting to the appointment?

Stairs are usually one half of the problem. Our transport rates cover the first five miles, then $2 per additional mile:

• Wheelchair: $115 each way, $230 round trip. The person stays in their own chair and it is secured with a four point tie down.
• Ambulatory, round trip booked: $55 each way.
• Ambulatory, one way with our staff signing you out: $88. The trip after a procedure, where our aide comes inside, is named as your responsible adult and takes the discharge instructions.
• An aide staying through the appointment: $45 an hour, for the time actually used.

Full detail on the transport side is on our transportation pricing page.

What does a whole morning cost?

This is what families actually book, so here is the real arithmetic on a typical one.

Wheelchair round trip within five miles at $230. Stairs on the way out and on the way back, $200 each, so $400. An aide staying through a three hour infusion at $45 an hour, $135. That morning is $765 , and it covers a person collected from inside the house, carried down the steps, taken to the appointment, accompanied through it, and put back safely in their own living room.

Compare that to what it costs a working daughter to take the day off, do the stairs herself, and risk both their backs.

How do we book?

Call 781-957-8076 . Tell us the pickup address and destination, whether the person uses a wheelchair or walks with help, one way or round trip, and how many steps there are at the door. We quote on the call.

For a discharge, call as early as you can. Friday afternoons are the busiest slot of the week because that is when hospitals send people home.

Care Remedy Inc, 100 TradeCenter Suite G-700, Woburn, MA 01801. Call 781-957-8076. Wheelchair transportation, stair assistance and home health aide care across Greater Boston, the South Shore and the Pioneer Valley, from offices in Woburn, Springfield and Brockton.

Sources: HomeGuide, stair lift cost research. Our rates are current as of publication and cover the first five miles, with $2 per additional mile. Long distance trips, wait time and overnight hours are quoted separately. Whether a particular staircase can be worked safely is assessed case by case.