Maryland's housing stock splits cleanly into three problems. The Baltimore rowhouse — Federal Hill, Canton, Fells Point, Hampden — runs 11 to 13 feet wide with a straight stair off the living room that averages 32 inches of tread width. Half the competition shows up with a standard rail and has to reorder narrow-gauge parts. We measure tread width over the phone before dispatch and ship the narrow rail on the first truck.
The Montgomery and Howard County colonial is the opposite problem: a generous turned stair in a Bethesda, Potomac, or Ellicott City center-hall colonial that needs a curved custom rail templated on-site. Curved rails add three to five weeks of lead time, and the homeowner needs to know that on the first call — not after a deposit. Our phone reps quote the curved timeline up front and send templating photos to the fabricator the same day we measure.
The Eastern Shore and Southern Maryland waterfront adds a salt-air dimension nobody west of the Bay Bridge thinks about. Homes in Annapolis, St. Michaels, Solomons, and Ocean City sit within a mile of brackish water, and standard zinc rails pit within 18 months. Every install east of Route 301 or south of Route 4 ships with a marine-grade rail coating and sealed motor housing as a baseline spec.
Built for the Maryland climate
Maryland's summer humidity runs 70-85% from June through September — enough to rust unsealed stairlift motors in an unconditioned rowhouse basement in two summers flat. Winter ice storms in Garrett and Allegany counties add cold-battery failures. Our Maryland fleet ships with sealed motor housings on every install, a marine-grade rail coating standard for any home east of Route 301 or south of Route 4, and a cold-pack battery for Western Maryland installs above 2,000 feet elevation. The 12-month humidity follow-up call catches corrosion issues before warranty claims.