With the growing need to make homes adaptable so occupiers can remain independent, and in their own homes, new guidance is aiming to help get it right.
‘Design Guidance & Considerations for a Domestic Accessible Toilet/Wetroom’ has been produced and published by Clos-o-Mat. The white paper gives advice to ensure that all aspects affecting the functionality and practicality of a bathroom, wetroom and toilet, as occupier needs change, are considered.
“Bathrooms are the most common form of home adaptation, to the extent the Lifetime Homes criteria have been amended to accommodate occupant personal hygiene issues,” explains Robin Tuffley, Clos-o-Mat marketing manager.
“Now, future installation of a hoist should be included in newbuild designs. A ground floor toilet should be provided. In existing buildings, changing a door from swinging to sliding can give valuable extra space inside to aid manoeuvrability….Then there are other considerations: will a particular shower chair fit over the toilet, is there the space for such an eventuality, what height is the toilet and can that be adjusted, what about using colour to help people with visual impairments, to cite just a few examples.
“Our white paper covers all the details to think about to ensure a successful adaptation, which meets the user’s needs and so achieves best value for the provider.”
The white paper can be downloaded free of charge on the downloads section of Clos-o-Mat’s website www,.clos-o-mat.com. The paper is the latest in a series of guidance documents produced by Clos-o-Mat designed to ensure good specification of accessible toilet provision in domestic and public/commercial environments.