Start with how the room will be used
Before we design anything we ask who uses the bathroom, how they get around now, whether that is likely to change, and whether a carer needs room to help. A person who walks with a stick needs a level floor, a seat and rails. A wheelchair user needs turning space, a basin with knee clearance and a shower you can roll into. Someone planning for later life wants a room that works now and can take rails and a seat later without being rebuilt. The answers decide the layout, so we take them seriously and we do not sell a standard package.
If an occupational therapist has assessed the person, we work to their recommendations. If not, we can suggest what tends to work, but an assessment is worth having for anything beyond a straightforward level-access shower.
Level-access showers and wet rooms
The heart of most accessible bathrooms. The bath comes out, the floor is formed to a fall and tanked, a drain is set in, and the floor is tiled in a slip-resistant porcelain, so there is nothing to step over and a wheeled shower chair can be used. A half-height screen or a weighted curtain keeps the water in without blocking access. A fold-down seat and grab rails go into the wall where the user can reach them, fixed into timber or a resin anchor, never into plasterboard alone. A thermostatic shower with a maximum temperature stop and a long riser rail means the head can sit at seated height.
Walk-in baths: an honest view
Walk-in baths with a door have their place: for someone who loves a bath and can no longer climb into one, they are a real quality of life gain. But they take a long time to fill and empty while you sit in them, they need a strong hot water supply, they are expensive, and they are a poor fit for a carer. For most people with reduced mobility a level-access shower with a seat is safer, quicker and cheaper. We fit both, and we will tell you which we would choose for your situation.
The details that make the difference
- Toilet height: comfort-height pans are about 450 millimetres to the seat; a wall-hung pan can be set to the exact height that suits the user.
- Rails: positioned for the person, not the catalogue drawing, on fixings that will take a full body weight.
- Taps: lever or sensor, no tight knobs; thermostatic mixers set to a safe maximum.
- Doors: outward-opening or sliding, so a fall behind the door does not trap someone, and a lock that can be opened from outside.
- Floor: R11 slip-rated porcelain in the shower area, no rugs or loose mats.
- Light: bright, even, with a motion-sensing night light at low level for night-time visits.
- Colour contrast between floor, walls and fittings for anyone with low vision.
Grants and funding
If the person has a long-term disability, the local council may fund adaptations through a Disabled Facilities Grant (in Wales and England), usually after an occupational therapist's assessment and a means test. The process takes time and the council may have its own approved contractors or specifications. We are happy to quote to a council specification and to work alongside the process; we cannot speed it up, and we will not promise a grant we have no say over.