Aging-in-Place Remodeling
As our population ages and home medical care is becoming more common and affordable; people are choosing to remain in their homes as they grow older instead of moving into nursing homes or senior assisted living communities. Of course this means that as homeowners age they find they need aging-in-place remodeling of their homes to make living safer and more accessible. Alamo City Handymen provides remodeling service for seniors to make living at home safe and comfortable as they transition into the next chapter of life. We’ll cover three additions today that deal with ease of mobility:
Ramp Installations
You may find that you need to use a wheelchair, a scooter, or a walker to get around and stairs are no longer accessible. Our handymen will go to your home and evaluate the situation and discuss what solution is best for your needs. We take into consideration the weight and size of your mobility device and the terrain where the ramp will be installed. We can build a custom ramp that is not only useful but also designed to fit your landscape and compliment your house. If you don’t want a built-in ramp another option is to purchase or rent a Modular Ramp. Modular ramps are made of aluminum and are easy and fast to install. They are low maintenance, sturdy, and low cost. Best of all, modular ramps can be disassembled and installed somewhere else.
Exterior ramps are important to safely gain access to your home but you might need some assistance inside as well. When going inside your house or traveling from room to room you will find threshold bumps. Threshold bumps are those little room separators that you rarely think about but can cause problems for wheelchairs and walkers. The solution is Threshold Ramps. They are little ramps made of aluminum or rubber that eliminate the bump and provide a smooth transition from room to room. Schedule a walkthrough with Alamo City Handymen so we can discuss what ramps you need for the exterior and interior of your house.
Door-Widening
Most homes have standard sized doors that are not wide enough to accommodate wheelchairs, scooters and walkers. We can widen the doorway so you have access to every room in your house without worrying about a tight fit for your mobility device. You want at least a 32 inch doorway for a wheelchair to fit through comfortably. Most homes have a 28 to 32 inch wide doorway which becomes more narrow when you add in the door hinges that take up about 2 inches. An easy way to widen the doorway is to change the standard hinges to Swing Clear Hinges. These hinges are installed outside of the doorway, instead of on the edge of it, and give 2 inches back to the doorway width. If changing the hinges doesn’t give enough room then we can widen the doorway by cutting into the drywall and reframing the doorway to a wider width. This solution is a bit more in depth but at least you can customize it to suit your needs precisely. Our handymen can easily handle this type of remodeling and add moulding and paint if necessary.
Grab Bars
Grab bars are exactly what they sound like. These grab bars are placed in showers, tubs, and around toilets to give people something to grab onto and maintain balance. Grab bars give seniors or the mobility impaired the ability to prolong independent and minimize the need to rely on someone else to help them. Grab bars come in a variety of styles, sizes, and lengths. When buying a grab bar you need to consider the weight capacity it can handle, length of the bar, diameter of the grab bar to accomodate your hands comfortably, and the grab bars finish to ensure it is slip resistant. Most bars are installed by drilling into the wall so it’s best to hire a handyman to do it correctly. Alamo City Handymen can recommend the best grab bars for your situation and securely install it for you at a reasonable price.
