Licensed #EASTGB744B1. Insured. Senior discounts available. Eastside Grab Bars is owned and operated by Mark Costello, and the business offers lighting installation for home safety across East King County. Good lighting is one of the most overlooked fall prevention tools in any home. Most seniors do not fall because they are careless. They fall because they cannot see clearly in a dim hallway, on a dark stairway, or on the path between bed and bathroom at night.
Lighting upgrades are usually affordable, fast, and dramatic in how much safer a home feels afterward. Residents of Issaquah, Bellevue, Redmond, Sammamish, Kirkland, Newcastle, and nearby can usually be scheduled within a few days of the first call.
Vision changes with age. By 60, most people need three times as much light to see clearly as they needed at 20. At 80, that number is closer to four or five times. Older eyes also take longer to adjust from bright to dark and from dark to bright. That single fact explains why so many senior falls happen at night on the way to the bathroom, on stairs, or in a dim entryway.
The National Institute on Aging lists inadequate lighting as one of the top home hazards for older adults. The fix is simple and affordable. Better bulbs, motion-sensor fixtures, dedicated stairway lighting, and nightlights along the path from bedroom to bathroom can cut the risk of a nighttime fall sharply. Most upgrades happen in one visit, usually in a few hours, and the difference is felt the first night.
Lighting work is most useful when it matches how a person actually moves through the home at different times of day.
A call starts with a description of the home and the senior. Where they walk at night. Which rooms feel too dark. Any recent fall. Ten to fifteen minutes on the phone covers what the visit should include.
The walkthrough happens in daylight when possible, with a follow-up near dusk or input from the senior about how each space feels after dark. The same hallway can look fine at noon and be a real hazard at 2 a.m. Every dim spot, every shadow at a stair edge, and every dark transition zone gets noted.
All fixtures, bulbs, and tools needed for the full plan arrive on install day. Most lighting work takes three to five hours depending on how many points need new fixtures versus just new bulbs. Every motion sensor and every switch gets tested before the install ends.
When possible, Mark returns at night, or the family walks the home the first evening and reports back on any spot that still feels too dim. If a spot needs a second fixture or a brighter bulb, a return visit handles it.
Mark started Eastside Grab Bars after watching his own aging family members struggle with the same hazards seen in client homes every week. Dim hallways. A single weak bulb at the top of a basement stairway. A bathroom that went pitch dark at night. Those small lighting issues caused more close calls than anything else.
After retiring from the US Small Business Administration in Seattle in 2021, he built the business to address the full set of hazards, lighting included. Mark holds the Aging in Place Home Safety Advisor designation through Age Safe America and volunteers with Rebuilding Together Seattle, where lighting upgrades are one of the most common requests in low-income senior homes across King County.
Most of the lighting work involves bulb swaps, plug-in fixtures, hardwired motion-sensor fixtures in existing locations, and battery-powered step lights. For work that involves new circuits, new switches, or rewiring, a licensed electrician partner comes in so the full project stays compliant with Washington State code.
Not if they are set up correctly. Modern motion-sensor fixtures have adjustable sensitivity, adjustable brightness, and warm-color options that do not disrupt sleep. Placement keeps the light on the path between bed and bathroom, not spilling into the bedroom itself.
Yes. LED nightlights use very little electricity and stay cool to the touch. The plug-in models used cost only a few dollars a year to run even when left on every night. Many also have built-in dusk-to-dawn sensors so they only run when needed.
Call Mark at (425) 522-8663, or send a message through the contact form for a same-day response. One short visit can make the whole home safer after dark.
Senior discounts are available.
