If you want to do a bathroom remodel for an elderly person in your life, think carefully about whether you want to take on this task. After all, you probably do not have experience in installing accessible accommodations, but a professional company will know all the procedures that should be followed. Here are just a few of the skills you will need to make a bathroom senior-friendly.
Choosing the Space
If the senior shares a home with others who do not need an accessible bathroom, making one separate bathroom for that person may be the most practical solution. If you have more than one bathroom, you will have to decide which one is the most sensible choice to use for the senior bathroom remodel. It might not be the one you would imagine.
You might be inclined to use the smallest bathroom in your home as the accessible one. If only one senior is living in your home, you might reason that the person does not need a large bathroom. In reality, an accessible bathroom needs to be larger than a non-accessible one with the same basic features. This does not mean that you need to give the senior the biggest bathroom in every case. Finding the right balance is difficult, and a professional remodeling company will help you choose the best solution.
Adjusting the Design for Your Senior
Every senior is different and has different capabilities. If you are designing a bathroom remodel for your senior, you need to take her height and weight into account. For example, it is important that the fixtures are not set too high for her if she is very short, but in any case she might need a raised toilet.
If you are designing the bathroom remodel yourself, you might be thinking of what your senior’s needs are now. If she has trouble getting up and down from a regular toilet or getting in and out of the bath or shower, you might think to accommodate for those problems. What an expert remodeler can help you do is consider the future in your designs and plan for possible changes. He can make sure there is enough space allowed in the floor plan for a wheelchair, and set up the sink so that it will not be difficult to lower it if the time comes.
Taking Preferences into Account
Your senior is not a cookie-cutter model of an elderly adult. He has his own ideas of what he wants in his bathroom. If you are not skilled at doing a bathroom remodel for seniors, you might make the choice that is easiest for you. For example, your senior might want an accessible bathtub. If it is easiest to put in a walk-in shower, you might do that instead of what the senior really wants. An expert installer will not have to make a decision on that basis, and can allow you and your senior to decide based on preference.
Your senior will need grab bars, an accessible toilet, and possibly an accessible sink. He will need enough room to maneuver in the bathroom easily, especially if he is in a wheelchair. He will need non-slip surfaces as well. It is possible to do this yourself, but a professional remodeler will do the bathroom remodel far better, faster, and you maysit back and watch it being completed.
