Mom can manage once she is outside. The problem is getting from the front door to the driveway without the steps.
Local option: New Plan Care gives families in the St. Louis area in-home help so a parent can stay home: companionship, help with bathing and dressing, meals, and overnight care. Call (314) 405-0887.
That sounds like a ramp job. From far away, it is easy to treat it as one measurement, one proposal, and one installation date. But the ramp itself is only the middle of the trip. The real route starts wherever Mom gets ready to leave, passes through a door she must open or wait beside, crosses every landing and turn, and ends where a person or vehicle can meet her.
Your job is not to design the ramp from your phone. Your job is to make the installer describe that whole route, identify the decisions that belong to someone else, and leave enough evidence for you to check the finished work before Mom depends on it.
Start with the trip, not the front steps
Ask someone at the house to record one slow, continuous video. Begin inside at the place where Mom collects her coat, keys, walker, wheelchair, or bag. Continue through the doorway, down the existing path, and all the way to the usual pickup point. Record the return trip too.
Do not settle for a close photo of the steps. You need to see the door swing, threshold, storm door, porch depth, railings, downspouts, utility meters, planting beds, gates, sidewalk, driveway slope, and where water goes after rain. Ask the person filming to pause at every turn and show the ground from both directions.
Have them measure the total rise from the lower walking surface to the upper landing. Also collect the width and depth of the porch, door opening, threshold, path, gate, and likely vehicle pickup area. These are screening measurements, not construction instructions. The installer should take and stand behind the final measurements.
Write down how Mom makes the trip now. Does she walk with a device, propel herself, or rely on someone pushing? Can she operate both doors while waiting on the porch? Does she need room for another person beside her? Can she turn, or does she need to continue straight? The answers shape the route more than a product name does.
Make the first site visit produce a route drawing
Give each installer the same assignment: inspect the complete route and return a drawing or marked photograph. It should show the upper landing, every ramp run, every turn, intermediate landings, handrails, edge protection, lower landing, connection to the sidewalk or driveway, and the door swing.
The U.S. Access Board’s public ramp guidance treats slope, clear width, landings, handrails, edge protection, door maneuvering space, and drainage as connected parts of a usable route. Its accessibility standards may not control every private house project, but they give you useful questions for testing whether a proposal is complete. Ask the installer which code and permit requirements actually apply to this address and who will confirm them.
If two installers draw different routes, do not compare totals yet. Ask why. One may be preserving the driveway while another is avoiding a downspout. One may include a turning landing while another assumes a straight run. One may stop at the bottom of the ramp without fixing the uneven path that follows it.
Ask each installer to mark the narrowest clear passage after handrails and edge protection are installed. Ask for the slope of each run and the slope of each landing, stated in the same form on every proposal. Ask where water will drain and whether snow can be cleared without piling against the ramp or blocking the lower landing.
Resolve the door before the ramp is ordered
A level place at the top is not useful if Mom has to balance there while pulling a storm door toward herself. Ask the installer to show where she waits while each door opens. If someone usually accompanies her, show where that person stands. If a wheelchair, walker, or bag occupies that same space, put it in the drawing.
Decide whether the door, threshold, closer, handle, or storm door needs separate work. Name who will do it. A ramp installer may exclude door carpentry or electrical work even when the route depends on it.
Ask what happens where the ramp surface meets the porch and where it meets the lower path. Request close photographs of both transitions after installation. A small lip, loose mat, abrupt edge, or drainage channel can interrupt the route even when the main run looks finished.
Confirm the permit and property boundary
Do not assume the installer and the city mean the same thing by permit. Ask in writing whether a building permit, zoning review, historic review, or other approval applies, who files, whose name appears on the filing, and who schedules any inspection.
The City of St. Louis Building Division says building permits authorize covered work and check it against adopted codes. The city also requires separate review for improvements that enter the public right of way, including some entrance ramps. A house with a St. Louis mailing address may sit in a different municipality or in the county, so the installer should identify the authority for the exact property rather than relying on the city name in the address.
Ask the installer to mark the property line and the public sidewalk on the route drawing. If the proposed ramp approaches either one, pause until the responsible authority confirms what is allowed. Keep the permit number, approved drawing, inspection responsibility, and final approval with the house records.
Turn the proposal into an installation plan
The proposal should say more than ramp. Ask it to identify the material and surface, support or foundation method, fastening points, handrails, guards or edge protection, landings, transition work, drainage work, demolition, disposal, restoration of disturbed ground, permit responsibility, and final inspection.
Make it name the exclusions. Common gaps hide in the door, porch repair, cracked walk, relocated downspout, gate, landscaping, exterior light, and the path between the ramp and the vehicle. An exclusion is manageable when you can see it. It becomes a problem when it appears after the crew leaves.
Ask who will supervise the site, who can approve a change, and who will call you if the crew finds rot, weak masonry, buried utilities, or dimensions that do not match the proposal. State in writing that Mom is not expected to approve design changes at the door. Give the crew one local contact for access and one remote contact for decisions.
If the house is rented, part of a condominium, or governed by an association, identify the person who must approve exterior work before materials are ordered. Keep that approval with the installation file.
Prepare the house for installation day
Confirm how the crew will enter, where materials will be placed, and whether the usual entrance will be blocked. Arrange another safe entrance only if Mom can actually use it. If she cannot, arrange for her to be elsewhere or for someone to remain with her while the route is closed.
Move cars, plan for pets, and remove planters or furniture only after the installer marks what needs to move. Ask whether power or water is needed. Tell the local contact not to sign a completion document merely because the structure is standing.
Request three updates: the site after layout but before permanent work, any unexpected condition before it is covered, and the completed route before the crew packs up. A short video call at the layout stage can catch a turn that blocks a gate or a lower landing that ends in grass.
Test the finished route as a trip
Start the acceptance check inside the house. Open every door in the order Mom will use it. Move through the route with the same device and level of help she normally has. Continue to the actual pickup point, turn around, and come back inside.
Watch the wheels, feet, doors, and helper, not just the ramp surface. Check whether handrails are continuous where expected, edges are protected, fasteners and joints are finished, landings remain clear, and transitions do not catch the device. Confirm that gates, meters, hose connections, and walkways still work.
Pouring water onto a structure is not a substitute for weather, but you can ask the installer to explain where runoff will travel and show that drains and downspouts are open. After the next rain, have your local person send photographs of the upper landing, lower landing, and ground beside the supports.
Ask Mom one concrete question after the trial: where did you have to stop, reach, back up, or wait? Her answer may reveal a door or turning problem that a wide photograph misses.
If she cannot safely make the test trip, do not improvise it for the camera. Ask the clinician who already understands her mobility, or the therapist involved in her care, what kind of observed trial is appropriate. The installer can correct construction. The clinician can help describe how she moves and what assistance she uses.
Close the job with evidence you can keep
Before final acceptance, collect the approved drawing, permit and inspection record if applicable, product and material information, care instructions, warranty terms, photographs of concealed supports if available, and the name of the company responsible for repairs.
Ask what should be checked after the structure settles and after severe weather. Ask who tightens a loose rail, corrects movement, repairs the surface, or addresses water collecting near a landing. Put those answers in the house folder with photographs of the completed route.
Add one recurring local check to your circle: clear leaves and snow, look for loose parts or surface damage, confirm both landings remain open, and report any change before Mom uses the route alone. If you need someone in St. Louis to document the route or verify that the finished work matches the assignment, use the site’s guide to local help for a St. Louis parent.
What to do tonight
Ask for one continuous video from Mom’s usual starting point inside the house to the place where a ride actually waits. Write down the doors, turns, surfaces, and handoffs visible in that trip. Send the same video and the same request for a marked route drawing to every installer you contact. Do not authorize work from a step measurement alone.
What to leave with the doctor
Leave the construction choices with the installer and permitting authority. Ask the doctor or involved therapist to document the mobility facts the route must support: the device Mom uses, whether another person assists, whether she can pause and turn, and whether there are existing movement restrictions the installer should know about. Ask who should observe the first real trip if you are unsure she can test it safely.
This guide is grounded in public guidance from the U.S. Access Board and the City of St. Louis Building Division and public right of way offices. You can see how the desk uses and checks public material on the Sources and How We Write pages.