How to Make Your Home Friendly for Those with Limited Mobility

Even a slight disability can drastically impact every aspect of a person’s life. It’s often essential to retrofit a house to accommodate someone’s disability or limited mobility.

If you or someone you love has limited mobility, keep reading. This post will cover how to adapt your home for a disabled person:

• Add ramps: Steps are a major hazard to anyone with limited mobility—not just for those in a wheelchair. Your first action item for updating your home should be to install ramps anywhere that currently has steps. Even one or two steps leading to a single-story ranch can pose a problem, so be sure to look at your home from the perspective of someone with a disability.
• Install a stairlift: Along with ramps, you may need to install a stairlift to help those with limited mobility reach your home’s second story. Today’s stairlifts come in a wide variety of different styles designed to blend in with the rest of your home.
• Create a first-floor bathroom: Even if you have a stairlift installed, part of your handicap-accessibility design must include a first-floor bathroom. Talk to your remodeling contractor about outfitting your bathroom with a step-in tub and toilet designed to accommodate someone with a disability.
• Add a first-floor bedroom: You’ll need a first-floor bedroom to go along with the first-floor bathroom. If you don’t want to build an addition to your home, it may be possible to convert an existing sunroom or den into a bedroom.
• Widen doorways: Ideally, all doorways should be at least 36 inches. If that’s not currently the case, you’ll need to widen them to ensure wheelchairs and walkers can fit through the door. Thankfully, this is a relatively straightforward project for a pro.
• Replace doorknobs: Many homeowners overlook doorknobs when retrofitting their homes for someone with disabilities, but doorknobs can be quite cumbersome for elderly folks or those who have a hard time gripping. Replace your knobs with push/pull bars or press-lever handles.
• Be mindful of surfaces: Tile and hardwood floors can become quite slick, leading to slips and falls, but don’t overlook thick carpets or rugs—these are also difficult for someone using a wheelchair, walker or another mobility aid. Your remodeling contractor can help you pick out flooring that’ll work for everyone in your home.
• Rearrange furniture: This one doesn’t require any professional help, but it is a vital component of adapting your home for a disabled person. Make sure there’s plenty of operating space for someone in a wheelchair or walker to maneuver throughout the house.

Talk to our team at Metro Contractors Inc

If you need a team to help with handicap accessibility design, hire our pros at Metro Contractors Inc. We’ve been doing these types of home remodels for well over three decades, so you can trust that your home is in good hands when we’re on the scene. Get in touch with us today to get a quote for your project.

Categorised in: Disability Remodeling

This post was written by Writer