The Challenge for this project was a 90-foot long driveway that was narrow and steep with no way to turn the car around. The Solution was to install a 76-foot Bruno Outdoor Stair Lift.

90-foot driveway leading up to the home

Our client was an 80-year old couple with a private summer home. As the picture shows, the driveway leading up to the house was very long and narrow making it difficult to back all the way out of the driveway, so they rarely used it to drive the full distance to the house.

With the mailbox at the entrance to the driveway 90 feet away from the house, it made it difficult to walk the length of the driveway to get the mail. It was also difficult to walk all the way to the home from the curb where the car was parked.

We contacted Bruno Independent Living Aids with the dimensions and they custom fabricated the 76-foot track for us. A Bruno Outdoor Stair Lift 2010E was attached to the track. It was the longest outdoor stair lift for them and for us. The track begins at the front of the driveway and travels all the way down the driveway to within fifteen feet of the house.

Stairway and landing pad during construction

Near the house, there was a dramatic change of slope where the stair lift track ended. A custom stairway, landing, and cement pad was fabricated so the landing was level with the sidewalk leading from the stair lift to the front door of the house.

View of the landing pad and sidewalk leading to the house during construction

The stair lift can now be used for getting mail and traveling back and forth to the car. Not only does this make it safer than walking the long driveway but it’s easier and safer to use the car because it doesn’t need to be backed up the 90-foot length of the driveway.

Many Thanks to Bruno for providing us with the custom track for another big stair lift installation. We recently worked with them on a curved stair lift in Los Angeles with 9-custom turns.

While there are many possible configurations and components that make up a Wheelchair Shower, here is an illustration of one way that shows a Shower Dam with other important products.

It’s also important to note that other people not in a wheelchair will probably use the shower but they may have some sort of handicap that can take advantage of many of the same products.

Beginning near the top of the photo is a Hand-Held Shower, which is easier to use from a seated position in a chair than a static showerhead that doesn’t move.

A Horizontal Grab Bar inside the shower provides support for pulling the wheelchair in and out of the shower and for turning around. It also provides support for a caregiver that may be helping.

Another Vertical Grab Bar is positioned outside the shower for the same reasons. Using both horizontal and vertical grab bars together is always a good idea whenever possible.

While the floor slopes inward to the drain from all sides, there is a chance that some of the water will spill out of the shower onto the bathroom floor. Water outside the shower can make tile floors slippery or carpeted floors wet and soggy.

To keep water inside the shower, a Collapsible Water Retainer Shower Dam at the shower threshold keeps water inside the shower. It collapses down when rolled over by a wheelchair then pops back up into place. This is an important component of a wheelchair shower. A Shower Dam can also used for walk-in showers to keep water in the shower, but some of them have a raised threshold that needs to be stepped over and is difficult to roll over in a wheelchair.

While the Shower Dam works great for keeping floor water in the shower, Weighted Shower Curtains make them complete by keeping water spray in the shower. These curtains have heavy weights in the bottom and they form a better seal against the Shower Dam. They are easier to use than a shower door for entering and exiting the shower in a wheelchair and better accommodate a caregiver.

A lot of wheelchair showers have a shower pan that is flush with the bathroom floor. In this case, the shower floor is an inch or two higher than the bathroom floor making it difficult to roll in. Lego Ramps were used to make the roll into the shower much easier. Lego Ramps are very lightweight and come in small sections that can be cut to fit or stacked on top of each other. They are very durable and have holes to help with water drainage.

A close-up shot from the front better shows how the Shower Dam, Weighted Shower Curtains, and Lego Ramps work together.

As we stated, there are many products and combinations that can be used for making a shower wheelchair accessible. It’s important to assess the bathroom layout and the needs of the user(s). Knowing that so many products are available has made it easier and safer than it once was merely a decade ago.

We recently installed a Bruno Curved Stair Lift in Los Angeles for a client with 7 levels in their home. We contacted Bruno Independent Living Aids with the specifications and details about the home and they manufactured nine custom turns for us.

Bruno said it was one of the largest custom curved jobs they had manufactured. We know it was definitely the largest curved stairlift installation in Los Angeles we have performed. With seven levels in the home, some only several steps while others covering entire flights of stairs, one of the toughest parts of the job was providing accurate measurements.

Curved stairlifts allow people to remain independent in their own homes. Most people only have one flight of stairs to negotiate, sometimes outside, and many times they only need straight stair lifts to go up and down a single stairway.

Curved stair lifts can be installed on circular stairways or with multiple levels and turns. Adding a single curve at the top or bottom of a straight staircase allows the chair to be moved around the corner and out of the way of the stairway. This keeps the stairway free for foot traffic when the stairlift isn’t in use.

For this installation, the stairlift had to cover a lot of area and many turns. Bruno does an excellent job of working with difficult situations and providing the customization to make it happen.

Most of the time a stairlift is installed AFTER a disability warrants a need for a stairlift. The interesting part of this installation is that the client didn’t have a known disability. They are preparing their home now to age-in-place. They currently do a lot of traveling and will use the stairlift for moving luggage up and down the various flights of stairs. If there is a need in the future for a stairlift to move people up and down the stairs, everything will already be in place and they can remain in their own home.

You may not have a need for a stairlift yet, but for many people, the benefits of a stairlift allow them the remain independent in their own homes.

For more information about this custom curved stairlift in Los Angeles or how you can get started to age-in-place in your own home call us at (310) 215-3332.

Who says seniors don’t have fun?

This video was shot at the Clark Retirement Community in Grand Rapids, Michigan by the Grand Valley State University Film & Video Production students, alumni, and professors.

The single-shot video features the song, “Feeling Good,” by Michael Bublé.

This video shatters the belief that living in a senior living facility can be boring. We all know days aren’t normally THIS fun, but tell that to this group of seniors and they might not agree.

When thinking about aging-in-place, it’s obvious that the bathroom is the first place in the home to examine followed by the kitchen. These rooms are extremely important because most of the accidents in the home happen there. But don’t forget to assess the bedroom.

An accessible bedroom is important because many accidents also happen there for a variety of reasons. When getting up from a sound sleep in the middle of the night to get out of bed, chances are good the lights are off and its difficult to see. Keep a touch light next to the bed that is easy to reach and find in the dark.

Speaking of walking in the dark, always have a clear pathway for walking around the bedroom. It’s easy to see area rugs and carpets during the day but at night they’re a tripping accident waiting to happen. Keep them out of the bedroom if at all possible.

Even for people with few mobility issues, getting out of bed from a sleep or rest can cause blood pressure spikes or dips and can be accompanied by dizziness. Always take a moment to sit up for a minute before standing.

There are plenty of ways to make a bedroom barrier-free. If you’re planning to live in your own home for years to come, here are 8 Aging-in-Place Products For the Bedroom:

1. Bed Cane Bed Rail (above)
There are plenty of products that can be used near the bed to aid in standing or sitting. One of our favorites is a combination Bed Cane Bed Rail. It serves as a bed rail when sleeping to keep from falling out of bed. It also swivels out to act as a bed cane to help with standing.

2. Designer Hospital Bed Rails (above)
Designer Hospital Bed Rails serve the same purpose – to keep you in bed. People get used to staying in bed when they have a hospital visit and the beds are all equipped with bed rails. Most people don’t think about it but you can have the same protection at home.

3. Designer Hi-Low Hospital Bed (above)
On the subject of hospital beds, we’ve been offering Designer Hi-Low Hospital Bed to our customers for years. They function just the same as what you use in an actual hospital but the quality is top notch. There’s a reason hospitals use this type of bed and it will serve you well at home too.

4. Bed Caddie Bed Pull-up Strap (above)
If you don’t have a hospital bed or lifting mechanism but have trouble sitting up, the Bed Caddie Bed Pull-up Strap aids in sitting up in bed or even simply rolling over. Some even use it for light exercise. It’s very inexpensive, easy to install, and provides something to grab when trying to sit up in bed.

5. Super Pole – Floor to Ceiling Support Pole
The Super Pole can actually be used in any room in the home but we see it used in the bedroom more than any other room. It works great for getting in and out of bed but can be outfitted with a bedside tray or trapeze bar for added functionality. It won the Supplier’s Choice Award at Medtrade in Atlanta in 1996 and 1997.

6. Bedroom Overhead Ceiling Lift (above)
For those who need quite a bit of help getting out of bed, a Bedroom Overhead Ceiling Lift is a lifting mechanism that supports an entire person. While some use it to aid themselves, it can be used by a caregiver for moving a person in and out of bed completely. We’ve done installations that can lift a person out of bed and move them to a bathroom for bathing and then back to bed again. The entire system runs on an overhead ceiling track.

7. Pull Down Closet Rack (above)
Do you have trouble reaching clothes in the bedroom closet? A Pull Down Closet Rack brings the clothes down to your level for easy reach. When finished just move the clothes back up to their original position. This can be used for a closet in any room and is popular with people confined to wheelchairs.

8. Offset Door Hinges
This is an item that can be installed on any doorway in the home to widen it an extra two inches just by changing door hinges. Widening every doorway probably isn’t necessary but if a wheelchair or scooter is needed to move in and out of the bedroom, you will probably need to widen the doorway. It’s usually easy to see by checking the door or doorway for scrapes where the wheels or handrests fit through. Offset Door Hinges are a cheap and easy alternative to tearing out the doorway.

There are so many products available to making a bedroom safer and more acccessible. These are some of our favorites and many can be installed without expert help. Take a look around at your own bedroom or the bedroom of your parents to see where things could be improved.

Many people ask us if there is a right time to start planning for aging-in-place. If you are currently in good health with no mobility issues and if you plan to move from your current home at some time in the future, you probably don’t need to worry about it just yet. The only caveat would be if you have family or friends who have special mobility needs and they require home modifications to accommodate them. This will help them when they visit.

But if you already live in the home you plan to stay in after retirement, it’s never too late to start the process of modifying your home to make it safer and more accessible. Even if you are in perfect health now, later in life everybody slows down and feels the effects of aging.

As we age, we lose bone density, our joints become stiffer, our hearing and eyesight fades, and balance and mobility suffers. Don’t fret, it happens to all of us. Some people succumb to illness that further impedes our once youthful agility.

There’s no better time to begin preparing for the inevitable than when you are still in good health and have the finances to make adjustments to your home that you will need later in life. By starting out earlier rather than later, you can offload some of the expense a little at a time instead of in one lump sum when it may be inconvenient.

Almost everyone plans for the future with a focus on finances. Retirement planning is all about saving and investing money to live life in the golden years by traveling or simply relaxing and entertaining friends. Very few people plan for the physical slowdown that will occur. This usually entails preparing your home so it is safe, accessible, and livable for the rest of your life.

Begin by doing the most obvious things like installing grab bars, non-slip shower strips, raised toilets, and proper lighting throughout the house. These are fairly simple and don’t cost too much.

If you have the time and money, you may want to consider a main floor bathroom or bedroom if you don’t already have them. This could mean building an addition onto your home or converting a downstairs room. Planning for this now will prepare you for an unseen accident or illness such as a fall or stroke. A stairlift or home elevator might be an option, but there again, planning for this now will only help later when you need it most.

The best advice is to speak to a Certified Aging in Place Specialist (CAPS) early on to find out how you should begin. They can assess your home and offer guidance on possible options, they best place to start, and, if needed, actually do the work. You could use a standard contractor but a CAPS specialist is trained in this specialized area of work.

For seniors and people with disabilities, the kitchen can be an unfriendly place. Sure, more people have accidents in the bathroom but the kitchen isn’t far behind. Here are some tips to make the kitchen safer and easier to use by making things accessible.

Buying the right refrigerator can make a big impact. Look for a water and ice dispenser on the outside. Doors should open all the way to 180 degrees so it’s easy to get to food inside and side-by-side doors are the best for people in wheelchairs because it’s impossible to reach a freezer that is on top. Also look for shelves that can be adjusted by turning a knob.

Customized extension drawers that pull out or a Lazy Susan make things easier to find and reach. Lazy Susan turntables can be bought at most home improvement stores and pull-out extensions drawers are fairly simple to install.

A Step Stool with a long handle is a safe way to reach items from cupboards. Look for a single step stool with a wide base to prevent falling ar tipping over. A sturdy handle gives something to hold on to for additional stability.

If you want to get a little creative, install electric kitchen cabinets that raise and lower at the touch of a button. When you need something from the cabinet, push the button and they lower to counter-top level. Push the button again and they raise up to their normal position. While ideal for wheelchair users, electric cabinets can be used by anyone in the family, even children.

An adjustable-height electric sink works in the same manner. Push a button and the sink lowers for convenient washing of dishes. Push the button again and it returns to counter level. Again, ideal for wheelchair users and children.

A good general rule to follow is keep food and frequently used kitchen items within reach. Heavy things should always be placed in lower cabinets and never up high.

Not everybody is going to add electric sinks and cabinets to their kitchen but it’s nice to know there are kitchen modifications available for those that truly need them. Consult with a barrier-free home modification specialist for ways to make your kitchen safer and more accessible.

Some call it a growing trend. Others say it’s a movement. The formal name is Visitability and its purpose is to make homes safer and easier to use for the owners and people visiting.

Visitability (visit-ability) is similar to Universal Design with fewer requirements, but the intent is the same. A home should be accessible for everyone – easy to enter, easy to move around in, and have a bathroom on the main floor.

To be more specific, a home is visitable if it meets the following requirements:

1. A zero-step entrance accessible from the sidewalk or driveway

2. Doors inside the home have 32-inches of clearance space for passage

3. At least one bathroom on the main floor of the home

The intent of these requirements is to make it possible for the homeowner or visitors to the home to easily enter and move around the home in a wheelchair.

Many new homes are being built with these requirements in mind, and they should be. Nobody knows how long he or she will live in their home or who will live there if they move out. By designing new homes to these specifications it ensures homes will be livable and visitable for everyone.

What’s more important is to realize how our population is aging. Baby Boomers are retiring and their numbers are enormous. People are living longer than ever before, well into their 80s and 90s. Making homes accessible to an older population is necessary.

If you aren’t old enough to need visitability requirements in your own home yet, you may have parents, grandparents, or friends who need the extra accessibility features that a visitable home provides. And if you plan to live in your home for the rest of your life, at some point you will need these features and certainly your friends who visit will need them too.

Adding a bathroom to a main floor where one doesn’t already exist is the most expensive and time-consuming visitability requirement to add. So if you’re shopping around for a new home for yourself or an elderly loved-one, look for a main floor bathroom.

To add clearance for widening doorways, a set of Offset Door Hinges are inexpensive and easy to install.

Adding accessibility to the entrance of a home with steps may not be as difficult as you think. Building a custom wooden wheelchair ramp is one option.

But if your home only has one or two small steps to clear, a suitcase ramp works well only when you need it. It’s portable and removable and can be transported in the trunk of a car.

Another option is a Pathway Ramp which can also be removed and stored when not in use.

The latter two solutions aren’t permanent but they will work when needed.

Visitability is something that most people don’t think about until they need it. And by that time it’s usually too late to do anything about it. If you may need to add visitability features to your home or the home of someone you know, it’s good to plan in advance so you’re ready when the time comes.

Home elevators always inspire quite a bit of interest, sometimes just for the novelty of the idea. We’d all love to have an elevator at home even if we don’t really need one. But there are some people that actually need an elevator to move between floors in a wheelchair. Without space to create an elevator shaft though, is the idea of a home elevator possible? Enter the Telecab Elevator.

The Telecab Elevator maximizes space in the home because it does not have a shaft. It is sometimes referred to as a “shaftless or vanishing elevator” because when it is in the “up” position sitting on the top floor, there is no evidence of it on the downstairs floor. The same is true when it is parked downstairs. The upstairs floor space isn’t eaten up by the shaft of a regular elevator.

A Telecab is convenient because you can send it to a different floor when it isn’t needed and then call it back when you do. The entire unit recesses into the floor or ceiling. They have many safety features as well as conveniences such as an in-elevator phone if needed for emergencies.

Many new homes are being built using Universal Design techniques. One such technique is to put a closet on the upstairs floor directly above a closet on the floor below. This creates space to add an elevator shaft at some point in the future. Many Universal Designed homes just put the elevator in when the house is built because they are so convenient to have in the home. But some people don’t need one yet so they prepare for the possibility of adding one when they get older and need it.

For those who live in older homes before Universal techniques were created, it can be a bit more work to add an elevator, especially if there isn’t space for the shaft. A Telecab Elevator might be an option for those who have the need but can’t sacrifice the space.

Give us a call if you’d like more information about a Telecab Elevator in southern California at (310) 215-3332.

The Abilities Expo returns to Los Angeles this year and runs from Friday, April 15 thru Sunday, April 17, 2011 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Accessible Design & Consulting will be available all three days in Booth #441 so stop by and say Hi.

If you’ve never been to the Abilites Expo and have a disability or know somebody who does, you should really check it out for at least part of a day.

Manufacturers, vendors, and service companies are available to show off the latest equipment and gadgets for people with disabilities. This is your chance to see what can help you be more independent, try out products you’ve heard about and ask questions about products and home modifications.

We will have our most popular items on hand to see how they actually work up close (Toilevator, Collapsible Water Retainer, Transport / Companion Chair). We will also be available to answer questions about home modifications or schedule appointments.

We hope to see you there!

Abilities Expo Los Angeles
www.AbilitiesExpo.com/losangeles/