Help planning bathroom please

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Ruth33

Member
Joined
Jun 15, 2020
Messages
27
Reason
CALS
Diagnosis
11/2019
Country
US
State
MD
City
Baltimore
Hello. I am new here.
I need help planning a bathroom for my husband who was diagnosed in November.
We are fortunate to be able to build from scratch.
We have planned a large roll in shower with no barriers.
And I have read the advice that it may not be useable soon, but then again, progression is unpredictable and being able to shower is important to him.
Builder wants to slightly slope floor 3 feet outside of shower for water that gets out.
Shower is 6' w x 4' deep. Is this too big?
Prefabs are 5' w, but not sure if that will be tight with a tilting shower chair.
Some other questions:
If we will (eventually) be getting a PWC which presumably will be height adjustable, is sink and counter height important? Same for workspace in the den.
I know we need knee room under sink.
I was advised about pull down grab-bars for toilet so they don't get in the way of someone helping and so toilet does not have to be against a wall.
How much room is needed on each side of the toilet for helping to transfer, etc?
Is an adjustable height toilet helpful for transferring from and to PWC?
Is it more important to have the sink or the toilet near the door from the bedroom? If sink is near door, toilet will be on opposite wall with anyone walking into bathroom having a view of toilet.
If toilet is near door, it will interfere with the 8' turning radius I was advised about (Is that important?)
Will I be sorry if I don't put the hoyer lift track on the ceiling. It seems like a bit much.
I'm thinking we will go with portable lift when we need it.
I know these questions are a lot.
Any advice and experience would be very much appreciated, even if you don't answer all my questions.
Ruth
 
I recommend a pocket door or curtain for the entry to the bathroom.

The sloped floor is ideal. My setup has the sloped floor in the shower itself. We use shower curtains rather than a door.

The shower can’t be too big. Mine is roll in so I can actually use it as part of the turn around space for my wheelchair.

Grab bars in the shower help only while one can still stand and has hand function.

Knee room under the sink is important but you don’t want the sink too high or too far back. Pedestal sinks work well. Keep in mind most power wheelchairs can elevate if necessary to meet a slightly taller sink height.

My toilet has pull down grab bars, one on each side. This worked very well when I could still stand and helped me to push up to stand. I have a tall toilet. Eventually my legs became too weak to stand from the toilet even with a commode chair placed over the toilet to add extra height.

If you want a bidet seat (recommended), put an electrical outlet near the toilet.

Ideally there should be enough space for the legs of a Hoyer lift to pull up around the toilet.

A turn around radius for the Hoyer is import.

I have a Hoyer (actually it’s an Invacare lift). This works well and I’m glad we didn’t have to track up our ceiling. I know people who have ceiling tracts and love them but they are not essential imho.

I eventually found the space around my toilet to be too limited for my spouse to get behind me to help me have a bowel movement. Now we Hoyer me to a commode chair with a bucket placed underneath.
 
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heres my thoughts. i am currently paralyzed from the neck down and have gone through a lot of different stages of bathroom problems
i started out with a stand alone grab bar to use to push myself up off the toilet, then went to a seat riser with arms. Now I use a lift and tilting shower chair which I transfer to in the living room or bedroom and get wheeled into the bathroom and over the toilet.
i have a roll in shower that is sloped inside to a drain. i wouldn't slope it outside the shower, it might make walking difficult , because it's uneven This is great, and worth building. i could use my walker to get in and sit down on a shower bench. and now i roll right in with my shower chair. it is 5.5"x3.5" with a 1.5" bench and glass walls with a 2" wide opening
i didn't bother installing a wheelchair sink, the storage you loose was to important to me. but do have a floating vanity, so I get a bit more room to turn around.
you definitely need room around the toilet for someone to help, but if its not possible, i just move the shower chair or commode to where there is room.
 
No smaller than the 4x6, IMO. I have the standard tub footprint, and it is tight, in my tilt showerchair to get turned in the correct direction...
 
The more room for your CALS to move around you in the shower area the better, both for the CALS and for the shower experience you can have.
 
Mine is a roll in but it was designed for progression. It has grab bars everywhere and a shower head at one end with a hand-held shower at the other end. There is also a pull down bench that can be used by me (now) or a caregiver in the future. The only thing I would do differently is put tile down instead of the flat roll-in material suggested by the company. It's supposed to not get slippery because there is a gravel coating but the coating has to be reapplied every six months to prevent it from becoming slippery. There is a rubber 2 inch entrance that keeps water in but allows a wheelchair or anything that rolls to go right over it.

I definitely recommend a bidet toilet seat. That and my lift chair are two things that have given me the best quality of life, at this stage.

When I did the remodel, I made each door 36 inches with the bathroom door 8 feet high. The 8 feet was suggested by the track salesperson because cutting will be much easier. I'm set up for the track system but will not have it installed until the right time. It will only take one or two days for completion because the configuration is all ready and lights have been moved. I was lucky that this condo had a huge master bathroom so all I needed to do was gut it.
 
Thank you all for the very practical advice.
 
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