What Every Senior Bathroom Remodel Needs for Safety and Style

Bathroom upgrades are essential for seniors living at home. Start with this complete guide to selecting safe and stylish bathtubs, showers, and more.

Some people think that arranging home and bathroom designs for seniors is a small matter. The truth is that the population of senior citizens in the United States is growing at an extremely quick rate. Whereas in the 2010 census, they were about 40 million United States residence above the age of 65, in 2019, that number had increased to more than 54 million!

With that in mind, figuring out the right bathroom remodel for seniors will be an increasingly common problem. More and more people are going to have to figure out how to account for the natural changes that occur throughout the aging process.

So what exactly do you need to keep in mind when you are remodeling a bathroom for the needs of seniors? There are a number of basic principles to guide your decisions that will lead to a safe and comfortable environment.

What exactly are these principles? Read on to learn all about the most important things to keep in mind about how to remodel a bathroom for the needs and comfort of seniors!

Bathrooms for Seniors Should Avoid Slippery Surfaces 

More than anything else, safety is a priority when it comes to remodeling a bathroom for the use of seniors. In fact, bathrooms are one of the most common places in the house where older people injure themselves.

Why is that, exactly? It is a combination of naturally slippery surfaces and water. Water makes the naturally smooth and slippery surfaces of many bathrooms even more likely to cause a fall.

Unfortunately, the higher likelihood of a fall is combined with a higher likelihood of injury. Hard and smooth bathroom surfaces tend to do more damage to people then softer surfaces.

On top of that, a fall can be made especially bad if somebody bumps up against a sharp object on their way down. Bathrooms have a lot of fixtures and tools jutting out from walls and other surfaces. Combined, all of these dynamics leads to an especially dangerous environment for older people.

So what exactly can you do about this? The most important thing to do is remove slippery surfaces. This goes double for any surfaces that are likely to become wet.

The first priority is to make sure that the floor of the bathroom and shower have plenty of friction. Standard bathroom mats can generally provide the kind of grip that is more likely to prevent a fall. On top of that, you might want to put out similar bathmats with good grip across the surface of the floor.

Beyond that, it is also worth taking some time to remove any unnecessarily sharp surfaces or corners in the bathroom. This does not necessarily mean that you need to remove them entirely. Instead, you can put a soft covers on the corners of anything sharp in the bathroom.

Your Senior Bathroom Makeover Should Install Grab Bars

Designing the floor the right way can decrease the chance of a fall. But you can further decrease the chance of a fall by installing things to hold onto. Grab bars installed strategically throughout the bathroom can mean that people are extremely unlikely to lose their footing.

Of course, it is important that these grab bars be installed properly. It is essential that they have a firm hold on the wall so that they do not come loose when people put their full weight on them.

On top of that, quality grab bars should provide plenty of grip. That means that they should not have a surface that is too smooth.

Bathroom Renovations for Seniors Can Use Tension Poles as Well

Tension poles are an alternative to grab bars. Instead of horizontal bars attached to the walls, grab bars are poles that run from the floor to the ceiling. They are another way to provide something to hold onto and decrease the chance of a fall.

The Right Bathroom Designs for Seniors Will Provide Ample Light

As people get older, they often find it more difficult to see. For that reason, the right bathroom for older people should have plenty of lighting. In fact, this is generally a good idea for everyone, no matter what their ages.

In particular, you want to make sure that lighting is never lacking. That means making sure that there is adequate light at night. In most cases, a good night light can provide enough light for people to hit the light switch when they need to.

Senior Bathroom Ideas Include Easier Access to Bathroom Facilities

One of the most important things you can do to make a bathroom more suitable for seniors is install walk-in showers and bathtubs. They are much easier to get into and out of than more traditional designs.

At the end of the day, it can be difficult to keep your balance if you have to step over a high wall to get into the bathtub or shower. Walk-in showers and bathtubs have low walls. That makes them almost as easy enter and exit as simply walking across the room.

Understand the Most Important Principles of a Bathroom Remodel for Seniors

We hope that some of the ideas in this brief article about the most important principles to keep in mind for a bathroom remodel for seniors have been helpful for you. Many people do not think about this problem until they have an urgent need for it. Unfortunately, the timeline for renovations can mean that seniors live without adequate facilities for a significant amount of time.

At the end of the day, getting older is a predictable process. It is worth taking a little bit of extra time to prepare in advance and make sure that your bathroom is remodeled the way it should be. To learn more about how to remodel your bathroom for the use of seniors and to find experts to help you with the process, feel free to reach out and get in touch with us here at any time!