Making a Bathroom Easier to use for the Elderly
My job is a painter/decorator and I have been doing this for over 20 years. I have always lived and worked predominantly in the same area which is a suburb a few miles from the city centre. The properties were all built in the late 1950’s to the early 1960’s.
Due to the age of properties meant that I would redecorate bathrooms on a very regular basis. Usually people had bought these homes 50 years or so ago to bring up families and this normally meant children and bathrooms were always in heavy use from baby stage to teens, therefore they would need a fresh look quite often.
The homes also dictated something else that you don’t see today in new homes . The bathrooms were all fitted with a bath, sink and toilet. Of course we are talking the 1950’s and showers, let alone walk-in showers, were certainly not common place.
What I found interesting is the decline in re-decorating bathrooms over recent years. I wondered why and after a little thought I reaslised that the people that bought these houses 50 years ago have now had their families and most likely become grandparents, possibly great-grandparents and of course they are probably in their 80’s.
I am still doing their interior/exterior decorating, but I have lost count of the times that I have turned up to start a job and the first thing they have to show me is their new bathroom. Of course they have to have their needs met and that’s where Bathing Solutions comes in. Their #breakingbarriers campaign aims to break social barriers for the elderly.
For the majority of my customers who show me their bathroom, it’s usually a state of the art walk-in shower with a stainless steel shower panel. Some even have radios fitted and they all have a seat because some elderly people can’t stand for long, in addition to grip handles to steady themselves, and of course anti-slip floor inside and outside the shower.
The bathroom has been tiled floor to ceiling to make cleaning easy and the old bath has gone. The most common reason I am given is that they simply couldn’t climb in and out of the bath anymore.
The toilet is also nowadays moved to be at the right height and I have noticed that there also grips at the side to help elderly people stand up more easily.
To finish it off there are fantastic accessories available today. One in particular is the beautiful chrome radiators that are vertical and covering most of the wall. They’re fantastic for keeping your towels warm as soon as you step out of the shower.
Nowadays there is such a fantastic selection of bathrooms available and if you are getting on in age you can definitely find something suitable for you to make your life easier in those twilight years.
1 Comments
Isabel
April 6, 2018 at 4:33 pm
As this is perfect thank you! I never really thought about ageing and how that might need to change bathroom layouts before – but it’s funny what can change with age. This is fantastic though – it gives me a good basis for the new bathroom design, so thank you ever so much to the writer of this piece. Though I would like to ask a quick question about walk in baths/showers etc – if anyone would be able to help me out at all? Essentially as my husband has gotten older, his legs have been causing him more and more problems. And one of the things he’s becoming most worried about is the bathroom and his own independence. He doesn’t want to have to rely on others too much, and still wants to be able to bathe himself and such, so we were thinking a walk in bath could be an ideal solution in this case. Does anyone know of any good companies we can get one from? I believe my husband’s friend mentioned a company called Gainsborough (I think this is the company – I’m 90% sure it is anyway: http://www.gainsboroughbaths.com/ ) Does anyone know if they are good? Or does anyone have any recommendations at all for other vendors? Or indeed any other alternatives? We’re completely open at this point! Any tips would be much appreciated as we’re very much at sea here!