Help Wheelchair Roll In Shower Design

Plumber_Bill

Question >>> ??? How the hell did you get a faucet in that shower with a pocket door in the wall.

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This and That

willworkforbeer

Haha, quite a trick huh? Actually the shower valve is located on the back wall, just to the left of what you can see, at a level that a person in a wheelchair can reach. The outlet I put just above pocket door frame.

KG007

As to the original question, if you can cut the joists and reinforce so you can pour a mud set pan and be level, I prefer a roll-in/roll-out tiled shower, no curb, no door. If there is room have a partial wall, maybe 5' high or up to 6' 8" high, then a case opening or just stop the wall and leave maybe a 36" opening. Let your tile guy slope the pan to the drain. Install some prefab niches for shampoo bottles, etc.

If you can put the doorway in the middle of the interior shower wall you can install a bench on the back wall, but you need a lot of room to do this. Use a prefab bench, framed 2x's usually wind up leaking. I like using a shower head with a hand-held hose, my favorite being Alson 6465 2-in-1. No stupid rod to hold the hand unit, looks great, no extra anything to cause you to drill into the tile wall or tile around. Made by Delta, so can match Delta's stainless finishes for other faucets and towel bars in the bathroom.

Second option is Swanstone. Makes a 3 piece unit in various sizes, I think the biggest is like 5' wide. Has a ramp as part of it and I believe a rubber gasket a wheelchair can roll over. Have to support the pan with thin set.

As I remember it off-hand, I think to do a complete Swanstone unit like this with ramp, grab bars, flip down seat, labor, I priced it out at about $7,500 to $8,000 at retail. Can probably do it a little cheaper, but would have to get third party grab bars, seat, etc., which isn't a big deal.

Tile looks nicer if you have the space and can get into the joists, but probably costs more to do. We've done showers like this, haven't done the Swanstone, just quoted it. If you are on a concrete slab the cost of the tile work comes way down, but you need a pretty big space to make it work right. Having a wall about 9' wide would be ideal. 4 LF of wall that is studded to maybe 6' 8" high, then 3' opening, then 2 Lf of wall to the corner which will conceal the bench. So your shower might be 3' or 4' wide by 9' long. could install a second shower head in the ceiling like a Rain Can and it would be way cool. Minimum size might require 34" interior width by 66" which sounds big for a normal shower, but isn't so big for a wheelchair. Means probbly no bench. Good luck.

mikeswoods

Thanks for the interest Graham.

Time for a CUSTOMER UPDATE---They passed on the last two houses-the last one was a wreck,frozen and neglected,a tear down as far as I could see.

Three days ago they had me look at a truly wonderful-amazing place -1 1/2 acre rural St.Charles
Three farm buildings, HUGE 20 year old house-Elevator(3 story,counting fancy walk-out basement)

Already handicap ready for some one in a walker.
Idea is to set up top floor for handicapped brother and his live in caretaker-occupy main floor themselves.

Only modest changes needed to make wheelchair ready. Three or four doors widened ,partition off three new rooms and re arrange the the second kitchen in the basement(Did I mention the house is HUGE?)

Oh yea,and remove the 30 foot long center bearing wall on the first floor.(Kind of a choppy original design)

They put a bid on this nice(very under priced) place yesterday. Man, I hope the bid is accepted.

Absolutely the finest people I have the pleasure to know.

I get to liking my customers and these are special---MIKE--

XanadooLTD

The customer will complain even though it doesnt leak. The rubber stops (curbs) dont really hold water that well and the water will pool. NO MATTER WHO DOES IT. And the customer will complain about that also.

KG007

Mike:

Sounds like your clients found potentially a great place. The lady who works for me in the showroom has a handicapped son (since birth, now 21, mentally about 2, blind, wheelchair confined, etc.). One of the nicest things they have done is installed a track system in the ceiling of his bedroom. They can hook up a harness and it lifts him into his tub, which is in the bedroom. Otherwise, a real struggle since he weighs about 150 lbs.

Also, they have added a deck with a ramp to ground level for a second egress from the house with him in case of emergency. Might want to think about that with a handicapped person on the third floor.

What kind of flooring are you thinking about? Especially if anyone is in a wheelchair I strongly recommend a commercial grade luxury vinyl plank or tile. Virtually a miracle product. We like Karndean, NAFCO is really good, and I'm sure there are some other brands that are good when properly installed. AVOID laminates. The lvp/lvt has lots of good colors and patterns, can look like hardwood or ceramic and is good enough to fool a lot of people, and is affordable.

Best wishes for you and your clients!

mikeswoods

Thanks again, Some flooring will have to be changed,I'll keep these suggestions in mind. --MIKE-

angus242

Mike, how was the ?

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Angus
L+M+O+P=C
"Promise only what you can deliver. Then deliver more than you promise"

mikeswoods

Restaurant was bad, I sure hope I went to the wrong place,2 people recommended it.

Majestic Tile

if you havn't settled on an option as of yet I would go with your original option of cutting floor joist. Just cut the 4" and sister with lags for piece of mind. use cdx 3/4" and 40mil liner. Thats what I do.
Go to majestic-tile.com to see custom showers 2 pic of H.A.S. You will see me standing 6'7". Yes that is a big shower