Brick Township's Trusted Partner for Aging-in-Place Home Modifications

Where Suburban Development Meets the Jersey Shore and Accessibility Becomes Essential

Brick Township occupies a distinctive position on the New Jersey map. Stretching from the Garden State Parkway east to the Barnegat Bay and the barrier islands beyond, this Ocean County municipality of more than 75,000 residents blends suburban residential development with shore community character. The township exploded during the 1970s and 1980s, when developers converted former farmland and pine forest into thousands of single-family homes marketed to families escaping North Jersey’s rising costs. Those families found affordable homes, good schools, access to the shore, and neighborhoods built around cul-de-sacs, youth sports, and volunteer fire companies.

Now those families are aging in place — some by choice, others because the alternative is unaffordable or unthinkable. The homes that were perfect for raising children are revealing their limitations for residents who need walkers, wheelchairs, or simply a safer bathroom. The split-level with its three half-flights of stairs. The colonial with bedrooms on the second floor and the only full bathroom at the top of a steep staircase. The ranch with a combination tub-shower that requires stepping over a 16-inch wall. These homes were never designed for the bodies that live in them today.

Accessible Solutions provides Brick Township families with professional aging-in-place modifications — ramps, bathroom conversions, grab bars, stairlifts, doorway widenings, and durable medical equipment — from a licensed New Jersey contractor with NJ Medicaid certification.

The Herbertsville Road Corridor and Brick’s Suburban Core

The heart of Brick Township’s residential development runs along and between the township’s major east-west arteries: Herbertsville Road, Drum Point Road, and Burnt Tavern Road. The neighborhoods that branch off these roads — Normandy Beach, Shore Acres, the developments near Windward Beach Park and along Princeton Avenue — represent the full range of Brick Township’s 1970s and 1980s housing stock.

Ranches are the most prevalent home style in these neighborhoods. Single-story construction on quarter-acre lots, with attached one-car garages, combination tub-shower bathrooms, and front entries elevated two to four steps above grade. The modification path for these homes is well-established: convert the tub-shower to a curbless or low-threshold shower with grab bars and a fold-down bench; widen the bathroom doorway to 36 inches; install a modular ramp at the front or garage entry; add grab bars at the toilet, in the hallway, and at any transition point where the resident needs balance support.

Two-story colonials and bi-levels present a more layered challenge. In a typical Brick Township colonial, all bedrooms and the primary bathroom occupy the second floor. When stair climbing becomes unsafe, the family must decide between a stairlift to maintain second-floor access or a first-floor conversion that creates a bedroom and bathroom on the ground level. We evaluate both approaches during the home assessment, considering the specific floor plan, the available first-floor space, the resident’s current mobility and anticipated trajectory, and the family’s budget and Medicaid eligibility.

Bi-levels — common throughout Brick Township’s central neighborhoods — share the elevation challenges of raised ranches. The main living level sits a half-flight above the entry, with a lower level containing a family room and garage. A stairlift on the interior staircase, combined with a ramp at the exterior entry, addresses both transition points. Bathroom modifications on the main level complete the accessibility package.

Bayfront Properties and Coastal Construction Considerations

Brick Township’s eastern boundary runs along the Barnegat Bay, and neighborhoods like Shore Acres, Normandy Beach, and the streets around Windward Beach include properties with direct bay access or bay-proximity construction. These homes differ from the inland suburban developments in important ways that affect modification work.

Many bayfront properties sit on elevated foundations to comply with flood zone requirements. Front entries may be six to ten steps above grade — far more than the standard two-to-four-step suburban elevation. Ramp systems for these homes require engineered switchback designs with multiple landings, and the total ramp length can extend well beyond what a standard lot accommodates. We design these systems to fit each property’s specific dimensions, using marine-grade aluminum that withstands the salt air and coastal weather that degrade wood and standard steel within years.

Interior construction in bay-adjacent homes may also differ from standard suburban building. Some properties have been raised or rebuilt to current flood elevation standards, creating living spaces on the second floor with ground-level parking and storage. These configurations require different modification strategies — potentially a vertical platform lift at the exterior entry rather than a traditional ramp, or a complete first-floor living suite built within the elevated structure.

Our experience with barrier island and bay-adjacent construction throughout Atlantic and Cape May counties translates directly to Brick Township’s coastal properties. The engineering principles are the same: resist corrosion, account for elevation, design for limited lot space, and build to withstand the weather that the Jersey Shore delivers year after year.

Ocean Medical Center and Urgent Discharge Modifications

Ocean Medical Center on Jack Martin Boulevard serves Brick Township and the surrounding Ocean County communities. When Brick Township residents are hospitalized for falls, hip fractures, strokes, or surgical procedures, Ocean Medical Center is often both the acute care facility and the starting point for rehabilitation and discharge planning.

The discharge planning team at Ocean Medical Center evaluates every patient’s home environment before approving a return home. For elderly patients, the evaluation frequently identifies barriers: a bathtub the patient can no longer safely use, front steps without a ramp, no grab bars in the bathroom or hallway, a bedroom on a floor the patient cannot reach. These barriers either delay discharge — at a cost of thousands of dollars per day — or force a return to an unsafe environment where the risk of a secondary injury is high.

We work directly with Ocean Medical Center’s discharge planners and social workers to eliminate those barriers before the patient comes home. Our Atlantic County warehouse keeps ramp sections, grab bar kits, shower conversion materials, and durable medical equipment in stock for precisely these situations. When a Brick Township family receives a call that their parent is ready for discharge but the home needs modifications, we can assess the property and begin installation within days, not weeks.

Brick Township Families Invested in Staying Where They Are

The families who moved to Brick Township in the 1970s and 1980s did not arrive by accident. They chose this community for specific reasons: the beach access, the schools, the fire department they volunteered with, the neighbors they shared block parties with, the quiet streets where their children rode bikes. These were deliberate choices, and the lives that grew from them are rooted deeply in this specific place.

When aging threatens the ability to live in that home safely, the instinct to stay is powerful — and in most cases, it is achievable. The modifications we install in Brick Township homes are designed to extend safe, independent living for years beyond what an unmodified home allows. A barrier-free shower eliminates the single most common site of falls among older adults. A ramp restores freedom to enter and exit the home without assistance. A stairlift makes a multi-level home navigable again. Grab bars provide the balance support that prevents the stumble that leads to a broken hip that leads to a nursing home admission.

For Brick Township residents enrolled in NJ MLTSS Medicaid, the lifetime benefit can fund a comprehensive modification project — ramp, bathroom conversion, grab bars, and doorway widenings — at zero out-of-pocket cost. We are a certified NJ Medicaid provider and manage every step of the authorization and billing process. The family’s role is to tell us what their loved one needs. Our role is to deliver it.

Every Aging-in-Place Service Brick Township Residents Require

Accessible Solutions provides the complete range of home accessibility modifications for Brick Township properties. Modular aluminum ramp systems built for coastal conditions. Ramp rentals starting at $300 per month. Bathtub-to-shower conversions and barrier-free roll-in showers. Tub cuts that reduce existing bathtub threshold heights. Grab bars and safety handrails throughout the home. Stairlifts for straight, curved, and multi-landing staircases. Vertical platform lifts for elevated coastal and bi-level entries. Door widenings to 36-inch ADA-compliant clearance. First-floor bedroom and bathroom conversions. Complete home accessibility renovations. Durable medical equipment including hospital beds, wheelchairs, rollators, and power scooters.

One licensed New Jersey contractor. One certified NJ MLTSS Medicaid provider. One phone call to make a Brick Township home safe for the person who built their life there.