Missouri has three distinct housing markets that each behave differently for a stairlift installer. The St. Louis metro — St. Louis City, St. Louis County, St. Charles, Jefferson — is dominated by the pre-1940 brick flat and 'gingerbread' two-story with 8.5-inch risers and tight newel post geometry. South City, Soulard, Benton Park, Tower Grove, and Dogtown all need narrow-gauge rails. South and West County are ranch-heavy and routine.
The Kansas City metro — Jackson, Clay, Platte, Cass — runs the 'Kansas City shirtwaist' bungalow pattern with a tight straight run to the second floor, very similar to Grand Rapids and Cleveland stock. Brookside, Waldo, and the Northeast neighborhoods are narrow-gauge territory. The Johnson County Kansas side is more ranch-heavy modern — different crew, different state, but Missouri-side Kansas City sees the older stock.
Then there's Greater Ozarks — Springfield, Branson, Lake of the Ozarks, Joplin — which concentrates retiree moves from Illinois, Iowa, and Minnesota into ranch and lakefront homes with outdoor stair access down to docks. Every outdoor Ozarks install ships with sealed hardware and a weather-rated seat hood standard. And across all of Missouri, tornado-rated anchor hardware ships on every install: Missouri sits squarely in Tornado Alley, and Joplin's 2011 EF5 is a permanent reminder that Missouri homes need anchors rated to 180 mph wind uplift.
Built for the Missouri climate
Missouri sits in the heart of Tornado Alley with 25-35 tornado touchdowns per year and two EF5 tornadoes in the last 15 years (Joplin 2011, Cole County 2019 EF4). Every Missouri install ships with tornado-rated anchor hardware rated to 180 mph wind uplift — not an upgrade, a baseline spec. Summer humidity runs 70-85% from May through September across the state, especially in the Bootheel, and sealed motor housings are standard to prevent two-year bearing failures. Ozark region winter lows dip to single digits and cold-pack batteries ship standard on any install above 1,500 feet elevation.