subject: Building A Personalized Handicapped Bathroom [print this page] David Pinsley works for First Rate Renovations, Inc. and Cultured Marble Products in San Leandro, California, serving the entire Bay Area. According to him, understanding someones specific needs is key when it comes to doing the right home renovation project. Here, Pinsley talks about how building the right handicapped bathroom can change someones life.
When physical challenges are involved in the bathroom project, the personal needs can be even more specific. At First Rate Renovations, we believe in giving people back their dignity as well as their independence, and know that it should not come at the expense of personal taste. Thats why we work together with our clients to offer someone for whom a regular bathroom would present an enormous challenge and give him the best service possible.
Here is one of the most interesting bathrooms that I have remodeled. A lady called me on the phone; her name is Lea. Lea is a paraplegic. She needs to get to her bathroom from her bed on her own. But she cannot move her lower extremities, since she is paralyzed from the waist down. Lea said to me, David, I need some help. Could you please take a look at my bathroom and my bedroom, see what my needs are, and then could you build a personalized bathroom for me?
After thinking, I designed a system for Lea to get from her bed to her bathroom by means of an overhead track with pulley, all electronic. It came with a huge sling that lifts her out of the bed, an electric winch that carries her on this track to the bathroom and sets her down in a special shower seat. Now she can roll herself to wherever she needs, to go to the toilet, to take a shower. She has the use of her upper body, not her lower body, so now she is able to do a lot of things for herself which previously she was unable to do.
Additionally, the bathroom I designed for her was a wet room. Everything in the room could get wet and the floor was built so it sloped to a center drain. The walls were all made from cultured marble and the floor was tile because a large slab of cultured marble would be too heavy; we could not carry it in. There was no wood in the room, no wooden cabinets, nothing that could not withstand getting entirely wet. The wall basin was a handicapped-type basin she could bring her shower chair to; the toilet was also a handicapped toilet with special grab bars so she could hold onto that.
When the new bathroom was done, I got the nicest letter from Lea, which brought tears to my eyes. She told me that thanks to the new bathroom she was finally able to get rid of her husband and live on her own, something she had wanted to do for years. I actually cried for Lea, and I could not believe that story; it was so heartwarming. What I gave Lea back was her independence together with her remodeling job.
