Owens Corning
Planning a Bathroom
The first challenge for the wheelchair occupant is to get into the bathroom. Bathroom doors are often a minimum of 2 ft. 6 in. wide (known as 2-6). In fact, the 2-6 door opening, nominally 30 in. wide, is a scant 27 in. wide when we deduct the width of jambs and stops. A person in a wheelchair cannot turn from a 3-ft. wide hallway into a 27-in. wide door. The narrow door should be removed, and a 3-0 or 36-inch wide door installed in its place. Also, the bathroom door should swing outward, into the hall, rather than swinging into the bathroom as is usual. The door takes up space in the bathroom if it swings inward.

Another option is to install a sliding or pocket door to the bathroom. Pocket doors slide into a pocket in the wall, rather than swinging into a room or a hall, so the door is not taking up any space. They are usually used in mobile homes or small apartments where space is at a premium, but are a real spacesaver in any house.

Bathrooms built prior to the 1960s were commonly shoehorn affairs, built 5 ft. wide (the width of a standard bathtub) and usually 7 ft. long. This 5 x 7 ft. configuration was the minimum size allowed under FHA and GI building codes, and millions of homes have that limited area. Obviously, if you install a bathtub, lavatory, and toilet in that small space, then swing a door into the space left, you have no room to move into the space with a wheelchair and still negotiate movement between the chair and the tub or the toilet. If your house has such a small bathroom, it would be well to consider expanding the room into an adjoining bedroom space or to tear out linen or other closets and include the gained space in a revised bathroom. To be useful to a wheelchair occupant, the bathroom must have an open 5-ft. turning radius for the chair to maneuver and turn.

Planning the bathroom layout so that a telephone can be reached from either the toilet or shower stall can also be a great convenience for any family member. Running with wet feet across a wet, slippery floor to answer a telephone call can be inviting disaster.

Written by Gary Branson
Reprinted with permission. Copyright HouseNet, Inc.

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