Bathroom remodeling companies provide much needed services for those with disabilities. People with disabilities need to have special accommodations in their homes in order to have a better quality of life. Those confined to wheelchairs and walkers cannot live in a “conventional house,” and it has more to do than just the stairs. The disabled generally need more space to move around, something conventional bathrooms typically do not have.
What accommodations are necessary, exactly? For the bathroom alone, here are a few major bathroom remodeling design features to keep in mind:
- The doorway should be wide enough to fit a wheelchair or walker. This means about 36 inches, which should give enough room for a handicapped person to turn in the hall and enter the bathroom.
- There should be about 60 inches of clear space in the center of the room for a wheelchair to move around in. Any shorter and the person may not have enough room to move comfortably.
- The sink should be open underneath so a wheelchair can slide right in. That means raising it from the standard 31 inches to 34 inches. The faucet handles, in addition, should be easy to access, so installing level handles or even a touch-free faucet is ideal.
- The toilet should be higher as well. The standard height being 15 inches, a toilet should be raised 17 to 19 inches instead.
- Handlebars should be installed next to the toilet and shower to make it easier for the person to make a transition.
- The shower should be curbless. That is, it shouldn’t have any kind of ledge or separation between the shower floor and the bathroom floor. If it does, a handicapped person may have trouble rolling the wheelchair into the shower.
Designing handicapped bathrooms can be challenging but the results are well worth it. For more information about bathroom remodeling companies, feel free to leave a comment or question at the bottom.