Guide
Getting older in your own home
How to hire safely, the jobs that make a house easier to age in, and how family can help — from near or far.
This page is about the house and who to call. For care, support, benefits and advocacy: Age Concern Bermuda ↗ and the Government's Ageing and Disability Services ↗. A "details confirmed" mark here means a business confirmed its information with us — it is not an endorsement, and nothing on this site is.
The rules that keep your money safe
Most tradespeople in Bermuda are honest. The few who aren't go looking for older homeowners — so these four habits are worth making automatic, whatever the job.
The doorstep rule
Never say yes at the door. A genuine business is happy to come back tomorrow.
Someone knocks: they "noticed your roof", they have "leftover materials" from a job nearby, the price is only good today. Established businesses with full diaries rarely need to knock on doors. Take a name and number, close the door, and check them — here, with a neighbour, with family. If the offer can't survive one night's wait, it wasn't real.
The money rules
Small deposit, balance on completion, receipt every time.
Never pay in full before work starts. A fair deposit for materials is normal; the balance is paid when the job is done and you've seen it. Get the price in writing before anyone starts — a WhatsApp message counts — and keep the receipts. Anyone who pushes for cash in full, today, is telling you something.
Check who you're hiring
Look the business up here first. A "details confirmed" mark means the business has confirmed its information with us directly — it's not an endorsement, but it does mean they're reachable and real. Then ask the two questions honest tradespeople answer easily: how long have you been doing this, and can I speak to a recent customer? For bigger jobs, ask about insurance.
If something feels wrong
Urgency is the tell. Honest work is never "today only".
Pressure, a price that keeps changing, work that "has to start now" — trust the feeling and talk to someone before money moves: family, a neighbour, Age Concern. If you believe you've been taken advantage of, Consumer Affairs handles exactly this.
Making the house easier to live in
The jobs below are each an afternoon or a day for the right professional, and each one removes a way of getting hurt at home. The bathroom first — that's where the falls happen.
The bathroom
Grab bars by the toilet and in the shower — fitted into the wall properly, not suction cups. A step-free shower or a bath board, a raised toilet seat, a non-slip floor. A plumber and a handyman or contractor between them cover all of it in a day or two.
Light where you walk
Brighter bulbs cost almost nothing, and an electrician can add motion-sensor lights for the hallway and the path outside — light that's already on before you reach the stairs. While they're there: sockets and switches at heights that don't need bending or reaching.
Steps, rails and floors
A handrail on both sides of any stairs, indoors and out. Uneven paths and crumbling steps — a mason's morning — cause the outdoor falls. Inside, loose rugs, trailing cords and uneven door thresholds do the same job; flooring and carpentry people fix thresholds properly.
Doors, locks and keys
Locks that turn easily, a door chain or viewer so you can answer without opening, and a spare key with someone you trust rather than under a pot. A locksmith does all of this in a visit; alarm and camera options are the security companies' trade.
Heat and air
Bermuda summers are hard on older bodies, and July indoors can be dangerous without cooling. At least one room with reliable AC — serviced before June, not during the first heatwave — matters more each year.
The jobs that used to be Saturday jobs
Gutters, yard work, deep cleans, the ladder jobs. The day to stop doing your own ladder work is before the fall, not after. Regular help — a cleaner monthly, a yard crew before storm season — costs less than people expect, especially shared across a family.
Helping a parent — from down the road or overseas
Plenty of the people reading this page are adult children arranging help for a parent's house, some from another country. The tools here work for that.
Post the job once, together
Describe what's needed on the quote form — free, no account — and businesses in the right trade respond. Do it sitting with your parent if you can, or on their behalf if you can't; either way they should meet whoever comes, and you should hear how it went.
Set up the regulars, introduce the people
A standing arrangement — cleaning, yard, a handyman who comes when called — beats a scramble every time something breaks. Introduce the person to your parent properly the first time. A familiar, trusted face at the door is also the best protection against the unfamiliar one.
When the house isn't the whole answer
Bermuda has professional home-care agencies — companionship, daily help, private nursing — along with equipment rental for hospital beds, wheelchairs and walkers, and residential care homes. They have their own category here now. The care decisions themselves belong with the family, the GP and Ageing and Disability Services — this site just makes the providers findable.
Storm season has its own list
Nobody's parent should be on a ladder in May.
Shutters, roof, trees, generator — the hurricane guide walks the whole list in order. Book the prep early in the season and the after-storm checks fall to professionals, not to the person you're worried about.
Keep the paper trail
Photos before and after any real job, quotes and receipts in one folder (a shared phone album works), and the insurance policy where family can find it. It protects the money, and it makes the next job — or the next claim — far easier.
Describe the job once — businesses come to you
Say what's needed and the parish, and businesses in the right trade can respond. Free, no account needed, and it works just as well for a son or daughter arranging it from overseas.