Accessible bathrooms
Bathrooms that work for someone with limited mobility and still look like a good bathroom, built to ICC A117.1 clearances where they apply.
Accessible work is mostly dimensions, and dimensions are free if you get them at rough-in. Thirty-three to thirty-six inches to the top of a horizontal grab bar. Solid blocking rated to 250 pounds behind it. A bench seventeen to nineteen inches high and at least fifteen deep, with the top sloped a quarter inch per foot so it sheds water. A clear floor space that lets a walker turn. None of that costs anything if the wall is open; all of it costs a demolition later.
The bars themselves have come a long way. A brushed nickel bar with a knurled grip section reads as a towel rail until you need it, and an integrated bar in the corner of the bench does not read as anything at all. We fit the blocking in every shower we build whether the bar is going in now or not, because the client who does not need one at fifty-eight often needs one at seventy-two.
The other half of the job is the floor. A zero-threshold entry needs a recessed pan, and the tile has to have a wet dynamic coefficient of friction of at least 0.42. Small format and penny round clear that comfortably because of the grout area; a polished large-format porcelain does not. We will show you the DCOF number on the technical sheet rather than describing a tile as non-slip, because that phrase means nothing on its own.
What is included
- Clear floor spaces and turning zones drawn against ICC A117.1
- Zero-threshold or ramped entry where the structure allows
- Solid blocking rated to 250 lb at every bar and rail position
- Grab bars at 33 to 36 inches, fitted or blocked for later
- Bench at 17 to 19 inches high, 15 deep, top sloped to drain
- Tile selected on published wet DCOF, minimum 0.42
- Handheld shower on a slide bar with a full-length blocked backing
- Lever handles, thermostatic valve with a scald limit set on commissioning
- Comfort-height toilet with 18 inch side clearance where the room allows
- Lighting increased at the vanity and a night-level circuit on a separate switch
How the work runs
Needs conversation
Who uses the room, how, now and in ten years. Caregiver access if relevant.
Clearance plan
Turning zones and approach spaces drawn before fixtures are placed.
Blocking schedule
Every bar, rail and bench position blocked at rough-in and photographed.
Build
Recessed pan, membrane, flood test, DCOF-rated tile set to the slope.
Commissioning
Scald limit set, bar pull-tested, heights confirmed with the person who uses the room.
What moves the price
- Zero threshold
- Structural. Joist direction and depth decide whether it is possible at all.
- Turning space
- A 60 inch turning circle is generous; a 36 by 60 T-turn often fits where it will not.
- Bench type
- Tiled masonry bench, folding teak seat or an integrated corner seat.
- Toilet height and clearance
- Comfort height plus 18 inches to the side wall where the room allows it.
- Caregiver access
- If two people need to be in the shower zone, it needs to be sized for two.
$18,000 to $46,000 (sample range) is a sample range for this demonstration site. Every project is priced from an approved drawing after a survey, never from a square-foot rate.
Questions about accessible bathrooms
Not unless you want it to. Every accessible feature we fit has a version that reads as a design decision: a knurled bar in brushed nickel, a stone bench that matches the floor, a linear drain instead of a visible ramp.
Solid blocking, not a hollow anchor. The bar has to take 250 pounds in any direction, and anchors into backer board alone will not. If the wall is already closed, we open a strip of it and put the blocking in.
Yes, and it is measurable. Ask for the wet DCOF figure from the technical sheet. Anything at or above 0.42 is suitable for a wet floor. The phrase non-slip with no number attached tells you nothing.
Talk to us about accessible bathrooms
Send the room dimensions and a photograph and we will tell you what is possible before anyone visits.
Bathrooms only · Licensed and insured in Colorado · 4.9 from 214 reviews (sample)