Joint Replacement Home Setup Score: A Room-by-Room Check Before Surgery

The place you go home to does a lot of the work in the first weeks after a hip or knee replacement, or makes them harder. Walk through it now, room by room, and score each zone while there's still time to fix the weak spots. This page gives you a simple scoring method, what "ready" looks like in each zone according to orthopaedic patient guidance, and how to score a recovery address that isn't your own home.

How the score works

Score each of the eight zones below as follows:

• 0, blocks recovery: you couldn't use it safely with a walker or crutches as it stands.
• 1, workable with a workaround: usable if someone helps or you change how you use it.
• 2, ready: usable on your own with a walking aid.

The total out of 16 tells you roughly how much work the house needs. Any single 0 is a to-do item whatever the total. This is a planning tool written for this guide, not a validated clinical score, and it doesn't replace a home assessment by your therapy team if they offer one.

Before you start, borrow a walker, cane or crutches and actually move through the house with them. OrthoInfo recommends exactly this, along with rearranging furniture or moving your bedroom to a more convenient room if needed (AAOS OrthoInfo, 2026). Walking the route with the aid in hand shows you problems a mental walkthrough misses.

The eight zones

1. Getting in the door

Count the steps from where the car stops to inside the house. Is there a rail to hold? Is the path lit, level and free of loose gravel or wet leaves? A 2 means you can get in with your walking aid and a rail. A 0 means a stretch with no support at all.

2. Stairs inside

The hip guidance recommends secure handrails along all stairways. Both the knee and hip pages suggest setting up a temporary living space on one floor if you can (AAOS OrthoInfo, 2026). If your bed and bathroom are on different floors and there's no rail, score this zone 0 and plan a ground-floor setup.

3. Bathroom

OrthoInfo lists a raised toilet seat, securely fastened grab bars, a stable shower bench or chair, a long-handled sponge and a shower hose. Check whether a walker fits through the bathroom door, and whether you'd have to step over a high bathtub edge to shower. A bathroom that's only reachable by stairs scores 0, whatever is inside it.

4. Bed

Can you reach the bed without stairs, sit on its edge with your feet flat, and stand up without dropping low? Is there room for the walker beside it? Keep a lamp, phone, charger and water within arm's reach so you don't have to stretch or bend.

5. The chair

For knee replacement, OrthoInfo describes a firm chair with arms, 18 to 20 inches high (AAOS OrthoInfo, 2026). For hip replacement, it describes a stable chair with a firm seat cushion, a firm back and two arms, high enough that your knees sit lower than your hips. A deep, soft sofa usually scores 0 in the first weeks.

6. Walking paths

Remove throw rugs and area rugs, and secure electrical cords along the edges of rooms, as the preparation guide advises. Then check that the walker fits between furniture on the routes you'll use most: bed to bathroom, bathroom to chair, chair to kitchen. Night lights along the bed-to-bathroom route are cheap and worth having.

7. Kitchen and daily items

Put the things you use often at arm level, so you don't need to reach up or bend down. OrthoInfo suggests long-handled tools and a reacher. Stock the freezer or plan meals before surgery, and make sure you can carry food and drink to a table with a walker. A walker tray or a small bag can help.

8. Dressing kit

Especially after hip replacement, OrthoInfo lists a dressing stick, sock aid, long-handled shoehorn and reacher. It notes that sitting, bending and sleeping precautions usually last about six weeks after hip surgery. Your own surgeon's precautions take priority. Score this zone 2 only once you have the kit and have tried it.

Zone summary

Don't forget the car. OrthoInfo suggests firm pillows for the car seat. If you drive and don't have a disabled parking permit, it also recommends applying for a temporary one several weeks before surgery.

A worked example

Illustrative only. Picture a two-storey house with three steps and a rail at the front door, and the only full bathroom and bedroom upstairs. There's a soft sofa downstairs, a firm dining chair with arms, rugs in the hallway, and no dressing aids yet. It might score: entry 1, stairs 0, bathroom 0, bed 1, chair 2, paths 1, kitchen 2, dressing kit 0. That's 7 out of 16, with three zeros.

The zeros set the work. Set up a downstairs sleeping space and work out bathroom access (the stairs and bathroom zeros), and buy or borrow the dressing aids. The 1s get cheaper fixes: lift the rugs, check the bed height, and have someone with you at the front steps for the first few days. Rescored after those changes, the same house could reach 13 or more.

Scoring a recovery address that isn't your home

If you'll recover at a relative's house, a rental near the clinic, or a hotel abroad, score that address too, ideally before you pay for it. Ask the host for photos or a short video of the entrance, the bathroom and the bedroom. Specifically ask:

• Is there a lift, or how many steps are there from the street to the room?
• Is the shower walk-in, or do you have to step over a bathtub edge?
• Can a chair with arms be provided, and how high is the bed?
• How far is it to the clinic for follow-up and therapy visits, and what transport is realistic?

In a rental you usually can't install grab bars. Ask your therapy team which freestanding or temporary aids are appropriate, and whether the clinic can supply or lend them. When you weigh the trip as a whole, the decision framework for surgery abroad puts the recovery address alongside the other factors.

Turn the score into a to-do list

Tick a line in the checklist below only when that zone scores a 2. Everything left unticked goes on a list with a name and a date next to it. Do the fixes several weeks before surgery, because installers, deliveries and borrowed equipment all take time.

A well-prepared house still needs people in it. Pair this score with the caregiver task map. For the medical and exercise preparation in the weeks before surgery, see the prehab checklist.

Related joint-replacement guides

Orthopedic lead network