Summary:
When building a custom home, it's important to look forward to your needs as you age in place. In addition, disability can change how one functions at any point in life. Unfortunately, around 26% of Americans are living with a disability, which means that about a quarter of Americans find it challenging to live their lives ‘normally.’
The average cost of assisted living facilities in America is $4,500/month. If you can delay or entirely eliminate the need to go into assisted living, then you will be able to save significant amounts of money. This guide is designed to provide an overview of how to design your home to allow you to age in place so that if your mobility becomes impaired, you can still enjoy your dream home without sacrifice or significant costs.
Key Takeaways:
- Pre-install structural blocking for bathroom grab bars
- Pre-Frame doorways to 36"
- Check floorplan for wheelchair turning radius
- Ensure sufficient width and run space for future stair-to-ramp conversion
- Pre-frame an elevator shaft (install elevator when needed)
- Maximize accessible (low) storage spaces
- Minimize the use of carpeting
- Specify the proper hardware and mounting heights
Tips when designing a house for ADA accessibility:
You can adapt an existing house for accessibility, but when designing a new home plan to age in place, it’s vital that you make it convenient for everyday use and easy to upgrade for accessibility. You don't know if and when you might become mobility impaired so it's best to be prepared because embarking on extensive and messy renovations when you are in the middle of a health crisis will not be very pleasant. Any type of service or support you might need should be accessible and usable independently.
Here are some home planning tips when designing a house for ADA accessibility:
Staircases & Elevators:
Staircase and stairway accidents are the second leading cause of unintentional injuries! There are over a million annual injuries in the US related to stairs. But, building a two-story home shouldn't be entirely out of the question due to lot sizes and cost constraints. So in this case you may want to plan for an elevator. Planning for a future home elevator doesn't have to be costly, you can simply design a space for it and frame it out but leave it empty until the time comes to need it.
Many people opt to only build a single-story ranch home to try to eliminate stairs but even if your home has no second floor, it’s often the case that you have at least a few steps that lead from your site grade or garage slab level to the finished first floor. If this is the case, then it’s best to consider how you might exchange these steps with ramps.You don't have to build a ramp on day 1 but it would be prudent to make sure that you have the width and run to be able to do so in the future. (Contact us to modify any of our home plans or design a custom plan with ADA accessible ramps, or elevators).
The ADA is a great guide for designing ramps:
- Maximum grade of 1:12
- Maintain 36" in width
- No more than 30 linear feet of ramp without leveling out
Floorplan Layout - Turning Radius & Doorways:
All accessible spaces on your floorplan should have room for a wheelchair turning space. The ADA defines this in two ways:
The key design element that you should incorporate into your house plans to be ADA-compliant is the need to widen the doorways. Typically a house might have many 28-32" wide interior doorways but ideally for people in a wheelchair to comfortably enter or exit, all doorways should be 36" wide or larger. Completely reconstructing the doorways after-the-fact can be very expensive since in many cases there simple isn't room to do so. You can instruct your builder to frame out 36" doorways (and headers for load bearing walls) and then frame the smaller 28-32" doorway inside that. That way, when the time comes to widen the doorways you can quickly and easily install them without having to do any structural work.
When it comes to door hardware, consider replacing the hinges with wide throw hinges or swing clear hinges and specify easier to use lever door handles.
Bathrooms:
In addition to stairs, a bathroom can be hazardous and inconvenient for people with disabilities. For one, tiles will become dangerous when they’re wet and soapy. Additionally, countertops and tubs are also non-forgiving surfaces for falls.
However, people with disabilities can still enjoy using a bathtub. One best way to do so is to install step-in tubs. Step-in tubs eliminate the barrier that standard tubs have, allowing users to easily step into the tub without straddling. Without the need to step, you are eliminating the risk of slip and fall, so you have a safer and more relaxing experience. Also, don’t forget to make the bathroom flooring slip-resistant.
Showers can also be designed for accessibility. There are manufactured zero-threshold showers that can be installed and curbless custom showers that can be installed, but both will need to be planned for during construction since the base is inset into the subfloor or slab.
Accessible bathrooms should also be equipped with grab bars in the shower and around the toilet. Since grab bars must be installed with structural blocking behind the walls, we encourage our customers to have your builder install the blocking during the framing stage and then wait to install the bars until they are needed. This way you won't have to tear open all of the walls when it comes time to install them. Make sure to carefully document (pictures and dimensions) the exact location of the blocking.
Flooring:
Carpet is a flooring option that isn't very wheelchair or walker friendly. Plush carpets that have thick padding may feel like moving through the sand for someone who’s using a traditional or manual wheelchair. Conversely, laminate, vinyl, and tile are flooring options that work well with people who are in a wheelchair.
If you insist on carpets as part of your house plan, make sure to consider the style and thickness of the rug, and padding. You can opt for short pile, commercial, or Berber types with minimal padding.
When transitioning between materials, make sure to specify that your builder install ADA compliant transition strips.
Storage Spaces:
As a rule of thumb, more than 50% of cabinetry should be base cabinetry, rather than wall cabinetry so that you will be able to reach your storage easily when wall cabinetry becomes inaccessible.
Consult with an expert for an ADA-compliant home plan:
The design tips mentioned above are just a few additions to make a home ADA-compliant. If you’re struggling for more ideas, always consult an expert with a reputable track record. In addition to helping you come up with an ADA-compliant house plan, they may even offer to install or renovate the house for you, as well as teach you about the new features you have.
