Handicap Bathroom Layout Ideas

Following on from my post on handicap shower accessories I want to take a look at some handicap bathroom layout ideas that I had in mind. The reason is there are plenty of things you need to think about when designing a purpose built bathroom for someone with disabilities and you don't wanna mess it up, cause once its done, its done.

See, once you built it, there's no going back unless your a glutton for punishment and like re-doing stuff. Except a bathroom is a load of work and as I said, once its done, its done.

First thing you need to get right is the layout of the room. Now if your starting with a blank canvas then its a lot easier than a room with stuff already in. So if you can do it, clear all the stuff out a your bathroom and that makes life easier. Then you can measure up and draw it out on a few sheets of graph paper. Graph paper is great for designing rooms cause you can put stuff where you think it would go best, then if there's something you don't like, you can just draw it again. Its much cheaper than getting a load of stuff for real and setting it all out in the room only to find that something don't fit right or there ain't enough room to get a wheelchair past two pieces of furniture.

So once you got the plan all laid out rightly, then you can order your stuff and put it in for real. The most important part about designing a handicap bathroom layout is making sure the person who is gonna use it can get in there easy with a wheelchair and get past all the stuff without it being hard. So wide gaps are important between furniture.

The handicap shower, as I said in the last post needs to be big with easy access for a wheelchair and plenty of grab rails in all the right places so the user feels safe and is safe!

A vanity unit needs to be low level with room enough under it so a wheelchair user can get close with the front of the chair under so the user don't have to lead too far forward and its uncomfortable to use.

The toilet also needs to be at the right level for easy transfer from wheelchair to toilet seat and back again, with rails there for support.

Towel racks need to be at low level too so the user can easily get to them and same goes for any storage cabinets for toiletries and stuff.

The floor has to be tiled to cope with water spills and a drain to take away any water accidents so the place don't get waterlogged. You need to figure the lights to be bright and leave no shadow areas. Mirrors need to be the right height too.

All in all, the handicap bathroom layout is real important that you get it right to start off with so the user gets a good experience using the facility.

Jake
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