Bathroom safety & aging in place

Bathroom safety for aging in place: where grab bars help most

Most people want to stay in the home they love for as long as they can. The bathroom is often the hardest room to stay safe in. This guide walks through where grab bars help most, for you or for a parent you're looking out for.

Why start with the bathroom

Floors get wet. You step over a tub wall, turn in a tight space, and sit down and stand up from a low seat. And the things people grab without thinking, like a towel bar, a sink edge, or a shower door, aren't made to hold their weight. A grab bar anchored into the wall gives a steady hand right where it's needed.

Room by room: where a grab bar helps

At the shower entry

Stepping in and out is a balance moment. A bar right at the entry gives you something to hold before your foot leaves the dry floor.

Inside the shower

A bar on the long wall lets you steady yourself while you wash, turn around, or reach for the soap. If someone uses a shower chair, a bar helps with sitting down and standing back up.

At the tub

Climbing over a tub wall is one of the trickiest moves in the house. A bar on the wall gives you something firm to hold as you step over, and as you sit down or stand up in the tub.

Beside the toilet

A side bar makes sitting down and standing up easier, especially after a hip, knee, or back surgery.

On the way there, and beyond the bathroom

Trips to the bathroom at night happen in the dark, often half awake. A bar in the hallway or beside the bed helps with that path. Grab bars also help at entry steps, on stairs, at the step up from the garage, and in the laundry room, where your hands are often full.

Getting ready for a surgery homecoming

If a hip, knee, or back surgery is coming up, or someone is coming home from the hospital, it helps to have bars in before the first night home. Book once you have a date. If the surgeon or therapist has told you where you'll need support, share that with us and we'll plan the bars around it. Our guide to grab bars after surgery covers timing and the usual spots in more detail.

Placing bars for the person who uses them

Our techs know the ADA guidelines for grab bar placement. Those call for bars 33 to 36 inches above the floor, which is a good place to start. But most homes don't have to follow ADA rules, so we can set each bar to fit the person who will use it. Before we come, it helps to think about:

• Who will use each bar, and about how tall they are
• Which hand is stronger, or which side feels steadier
• Whether they stand in the shower or use a shower chair
• The path they take at night, from the bed to the bathroom
• Any steps where they already reach for a wall or a door frame

Commercial or rental restroom? See our commercial and ADA grab bar guide for the full ADA placement numbers.

A quick walk-through you can do today

Walk the route your parent (or you) takes every day and ask:

• Is there something solid to hold when stepping into the shower or tub?
• Is anyone using a towel bar, a sink, or a shower door for balance?
• Is getting up from the toilet a struggle?
• Is the hallway to the bathroom dark or without anything to hold?
• Are there entry, garage, or stair steps without a handhold?

Any "yes" is a good spot for a grab bar. Send us a photo with your free estimate request and we'll help you sort out the rest.

For families booking for a parent

Booking for a parent, whether you live across town or out of state? You can do that, and we keep you in the loop from estimate to install. Our guide for families booking for a parent walks through it step by step. You'll know the price before we arrive: $185 per bar, installed, with all mounting hardware included. The bar itself is extra. Use your own, or we can supply one. See full pricing.

Every install comes with a lifetime workmanship warranty for as long as you own your home or building: if a bar we installed loosens because of how we installed it, we fix it free. The bar itself is covered by its maker's warranty; damage, misuse, and pre-existing wall problems aren't covered. We also come back for a free inspection at one year. That visit is a good chance to see whether anything else has changed.

Where we install

From the Orlando / Longwood area, we serve these Central Florida communities. Don't see your city? Call and ask.

• Orlando
• Longwood
• Winter Park
• Maitland
• Lake Mary
• Apopka
• Altamonte Springs
• Sanford
• Oviedo
• Casselberry
• Winter Springs
• Ocoee
• Winter Garden
• Clermont
• Kissimmee
• St. Cloud
• Windermere
• Belle Isle
• New Smyrna Beach
• The Villages
• DeLand
• Mount Dora
• Zellwood
• Chuluota
• Wekiwa Springs
• Alafaya
• Melbourne

Bathroom safety questions

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