Wheelchair Bathtub

I need to replace the tub with one. Money is an object. I live in a condo in Seattle and don't have the $25k estimates that I've been given. I don't want a franchise or Redi-Tile. The room is 9' by 6'. I'm thinking of a shower with a lip running along the length of the floor to help keep the water in. My wheelchair will be pushed up a small ramp at the back to make getting over the lip easy. The drain will stay where it is. The shower floor will be slightly sloped. The back of the new floor will be about a quarter inch higher than the foot of the shower where the drain will be. The combination of the lip & sloped floor should help keep the water inside the shower and flowing to the drain.

We use a heavy duty cloth shower curtain, twice as thick and absorbent as a bath towel. I use a hand held nozzle to direct the spray. I don't need any wall-mounted shower controls because there will always be someone there to help. At most, a hook mounted on the wall to hold the shower hose in place while it's not in use might be needed.

What are the up & down sides of Kerdi? What kind of surface can or will it adhere to? Ceramic tiles, fiberglass? Do any other products or designs come to mind? One contractor suggested a very slight "sloping" of the bathroom floor up to the lip to make it easier to wheel over the lip. Rebuilding the entire floor will cost more, I think, than building a solid lip and sloped shower floor.

Any ideas are welcome.

No idea on how to remodel within your budget and lease constraints, but when we designed showers for chair-friendly apartments, we used a double slope plan- the entire room sloped gently to the drain, and the shower area sloped a little more. Sort of a shallow bowl in a shallow bowl idea.

Regular shower curtain, and the design meant that with the curtain open, the entire room was usable chair moving space. (We also put the sink in a corner. The toilet is the only thing 'poking out' into the room.)

Drainage has gone well and the plan has worked for every apartment we built it into.

2009-07-01 17:53:28 by OneOfTheGoodOnes

I amparaplegic. Many of the things i do are either done wrong or incorrectly. Doing things the incorrect way is probably what made me paraplegic ...

What are the dimensions in Length / Width for an average sized wheelchair accessible bathroom including a Sink, Bathtub, and Toilet?

I've done a lot of bathroom evaluations for wheelchair accessibility in homes over the last few years. ADA requires that a public bathroom have 5'x5' of clear floor space to make corners, but I have found very small bathrooms that were set up just right so that a wheelchair user was safe and able to access everything. I have also found very large bathrooms that were set up so very little was accessible.

Doors: The average wheelchair is about 28" wide. Your door just needs to be a little wider than the chair.

Sinks: Pedestal sinks are nice because some wheelchairs can roll under them allowing the user to wash hands very easily. Also consider removing the doors and bottom of an existing vanity to make the sink accessible. Make sure any exposed pipe is insulated and piped to protect the user.

Toilet: Most home improvement stores (Home Depot, Ace, Lowes) sell toilets that are a little taller. The average toilet height is about 15". The toilets meant for wheelchair and other disabled users are 17-19" high. They are referred to as Comfort Height or ADA height.

Bathtub: The ultimate mod is to remove the tub completely and replace with a roll-in shower. A roll-in shower is very safe. If that is not a possibility, it is very simple to install a bathtub transfer bench. This is a seat with two legs outside the tub, two legs inside the tub, and a long seat that allows the user to slide from the wheelchair into the tub. If the user is seated, they will also need a hand held shower to direct the water around their body.

Consider installing grab bars in the walls of the bath tub area to help in the transfer process.

2008-01-10 20:30:10 by aqdrgn02

Price: $149.99 $49.65

Sure grip legs provide added safety and stability
5 levels of seat height adjustment, each increment is 1" and so highly adjustable seat height from 16 1/2" to 20 1/2"
250 lbs weight capacity