Thinking about remodeling a small bathroom, which currently has a one-piece tub/shower, a commode and a small built in linen cabinet. (Sinks are in a separate dressing area.)
Looking to set things up for an aging-in-place situation.
Probably looking at just a larger shower that would be suitable for access by an elderly person with limited mobility.

Has anybody done such a project with aging-in-place in mind? What worked out well? What would you do differently? And roughly what was the project budget?

Sandy thought this would be a good group to ask. I guess she thinks we are a bunch of old fogies.

 

No matter what you do make sure you put blocking in the walls for grab bars. If you don't plan on installing the bars right away take detailed measurements so you can locate them in the future.

 

Great advice Scoots. We did a total re-do of our main bathroom. The contractor asked us several times if we wanted grab bars and we both said Nah, Don't Need Them! It probably wasn't a year or year and half later Donna took a bad tumble (bike, horse, whatever) and needed to soak in the tub a lot. And she had a heck of time trying to get in and out because there were no grab bars. The contractor that did ours said they could be put in later but he's no longer around . . . so I've no idea how big of job it will be but at least I do have lots of extra matching tiles and grout should we explore.

 

When we bought and remodeled our home, we made two mistakes in our master bath that you should not make.
1. we have an inset shelf for soap etc and we put it too close to the shower head, so it always has excess water at the end of our shower. Move it away so splashing won't affect it.
2. our floor is heated, but we didn't do the walk-in shower floor nor the last two feet at the opposite end of the bathroom. Do the whole damn thing or you will regret it forever more. Our tile guy talked us out of it and I'm sorry I listened.

 

Also, make sure the shower handles, toilet handles, etc are all easily adjusted if someone has weakened hands or can't grasp them.

 

A sign with arrows for an alternative bathroom (backdoor maybe) is always useful if it's in use.

 

​​​​​​ Also the height from the floor of that shelf is important for anyone, whether they need grab bars or not. I have banged my elbow so many times on the soap shelf. I farther should farther away from the shower head and most likely higher and I
I'm would not have that problem.

 

Translate, please!

 

I recently did a major remodel, including redoing a bathroom. I had them do a walk-in shower using a "linear drain". The drain stretches across the floor at one end of the enclosure. This allows the shower floor to be flat...not level, but flat...which removes the requirement that the floor be done with small tiles so that it can be pitched to a central round drain. Using the linear drain allowed us to use the same 1ftx2ft floor tiles in the entire bathroom. Also, the linear drain requires a relatively minimal angle, so the floor, while slanted, is at a fairly mild angle and isn't difficult to stand or balance on.

I did a pony wall across from the shower head, with lots of glass above it, as well as a glass door for the shower entry. If I were to do it again I'd limit or eliminate the glass as you kinda have to squeegee it every time you use the shower.

I did have blocking put in for future grab bars. I took pictures of the framing, but I don't have measurements.

I ended up putting a couple of grab bars in places where we didn't have blocking. Yeah, I know, plan ahead... Anyway, there are systems which will allow you to install grab bars on a non-blocked wall. The systems use much higher capacity wall anchors, which spread the load out over a large area of the hollow wall. Blocking is probably more secure...and easier to use.

Shower heads don't produce much water these days, but many of them have removable restrictors. These are usually pretty easy to do yourself, but your plumber can probably help. I've got Delta fixtures which work fine now.

Dave

 

Shit. I didn't even think I posted. I was having major troubles and gave up. Cell phone posts do not agree with me. I was trying to say that the shelf height needs to be above or below elbows and toward the back of the shower. I hate banging my elbow on the lip of the inset and I don't want the soap getting wet either. Hell, why not make it on the back wall?