Designing a disabled-friendly home from scratch can be pretty straightforward if you know what to include.
These projects often arise from litigation work and injury compensation settlements where people need new homes building or adaptations carrying out to ensure that they can still make the best of their house.
So here are five things for you to include in your designs to make sure the client’s every need is taken care of.
One key thing that you may want to include in your designs in an overhead hoist system. If the client is paralysed and cannot move around with ease, then a ceiling track hoist will give them the ability to carry out transfers between rooms and between different pieces of furniture.
Installing hoists is an easy way to create a disabled-friendly home and they can be designed to be as subtle as possible. The tracks can be recessed into the ceiling so they don’t hang below, and the hoist unit can be hidden away in a made-to-measure cupboard when it’s not needed.
You can also choose between a monorail system which provides direct point-to-point movement and a X-Y hoist layout that includes full room coverage. It all depends on what is best for your client.
Overhead hoist systems can be installed throughout the entire house if you wish to make it as accessible as possible. We can design a bespoke system for each room and connect them all so that your client can move throughout the house with no cumbersome transfers.
If your client doesn’t need the coverage of an overhead system, then a completely hidden hoist solution might be a better option. The Integralift is the perfect solution.
This is a hidden hoist system that folds away in a cupboard when it’s not needed, and you wouldn’t even know it was there. The arm of the hoist extends from the top section of the cupboard and is perfect for facilitating smaller transfers to and from the bed.
The Integralift is available in either an L-shaped cabinet layout or a complete bedhead system to suit your client. The cabinet can also be designed to include other things like LED lights, shelving, and even medical gases.
It can also be supplied in a range of colours and wood finishes to suit any sort of interior design and decor.
Hoist systems are fantastic for getting you from room-to-room, but you’ll still need something extra to go between different levels of the house (assuming it’s not a bungalow). A through-floor lift can help make a disabled-friendly home even better.
These lifts can also be supplied in all kinds of configurations, and you can choose different options for the flooring, control panel, and even the glass of the door itself. If the client wanted, the entire lift could be decorated with their most-treasured photo, cartoon characters, or their favourite sports team logo.
Some lifts are actually pretty compact and take us less space than a typical shower cubicle. This can be installed to span four floors of the home so that the client can make to most of the entire dwelling.
In any home, the bathroom is a place of relaxation — so why should a disabled-friendly home be any different? You can make sure that all the right equipment is specified so that your client has everything they need.
There are all kinds of specialist baths, toilets, and even height-adjustable sinks that can installed so that the user can access all the facilities with no problem. These can also be supplied in different finishes and configurations to blend in seamlessly with the design of the room.
The bathroom is a great place to include an overhead hoist system; specifically, a X-Y layout to give full room coverage. This means the client can be moved between different locations with no hassle.
If the client is undergoing some rehabilitation or has a physiotherapy plan that includes hydrotherapy, then a hydrotherapy pool is an excellent addition to the home. These can be made completely bespoke to fit in the house or any sort of extension.
For a single client to use in their own home, you could specify a pool as small as 3m x 2m, which would be enough to exercise and enjoy without being too large to maintain and take care of.
These hydrotherapy pools can also be designed with different features like air jets, colour-changing lights, sound systems, wave machines, and in-built treadmills. This will give the client a chance to exercise and some sensory stimulation without them even having to leave their house.
You might not need all five of these things when designing a disabled-friendly home, but they do help to make the house as accessible as possible for the client.
It really depends on the needs of your client and how much they want to include, but if you need any help with the designs, we’re here to help!
Be sure to use the contact form and reach out to us if you have any questions about the content above.