A Guide To Bathroom Floors For The Elderly
Age Care Bathrooms provide a multitude of adaptations for those with mobility impairments. Contact our specialists today to enquire about our array of services.
How does it feel taking a shower without the fear of tripping, slipping, or falling? How many times is the shower room regarded as the most dangerous place in the house? Non-slippery floors in the bathroom bring a lot of convenience for people.
Wet rooms, for this particular purpose, are built to be slip-resistant. Read on to know why.
In the bathroom, grab bars are installed for support and added convenience for people with age and disability. The goal of installing grab bars is to prevent accidents because the floors and tiles are regarded as “highly” slippery.
In line with the advancement of technology, the modernity of life encouraged architects and engineers to come up with a bathroom solution that will benefit all age brackets of people. Thus, the modern bathroom is an innovative way to provide solutions to prevent accidents and at the same time, add aesthetic appeal to the home interior of one’s property.
Helping The Aged
When people get old, their physical strength wanes. One’s mobility is affected by this ageing factor. Another cause of physical deterioration is a disability. Since older people are weaker, they are more susceptible to illness, making them more vulnerable to pain and immobility. Because bathrooms are wet all the time, it is dangerous for the elderly and people with limited mobility to move around. One major factor for the accidents in the bathroom is its wet surface! With wet rooms, the risk of tripping will be lessened.
Choice Of Flooring Materials
The wrong selection of floor tiles makes the shower room highly slippery. To avoid dangerous slips and to become a place for life-threatening accidents, wet rooms are built with slip-resistant floors. Common causes of falls are due to non-porous tiles. If the kind of flooring, such as porcelain or ceramics, is more slippery when wet, it is no assurance to keep everyone safe from using the bath. Nevertheless, ceramics are a popular tile choice for standard bathrooms.
The most significant advantage you can get from ceramics or porcelain is that either of them is waterproof, which is one of the main features of wet rooms. But when it comes to the benefit of people with limited mobility, they are not as ideal as they should be. Slippery floors are not suitable for the elderly as they have less control over their balance. Also, porcelain tiles can crack, posing a threat to bare feet.
Wet rooms, sometimes called disabled bathrooms, are specially designed to benefit people with disability.
Vinyl Flooring
Admitted that porcelain and ceramic tiles look great for your bathroom and that they are the popular choice, you can opt for vinyl for instead for useability. They offer the following benefits for your wet room project.
- Less expensive than ceramic or porcelain
- Easy installation; no messy tools to deal with
- Water-resistant than laminate flooring
- More durable than hardwood planks
- No cold floor to walk on compared to stone, as it stays with room temperature
- Less maintenance compared to granite
- Softer to walk on compared to marble or stone
Rubber flooring
Rubber flooring has been proven to be a safe slip-resistant flooring for bathroom renovations. The rubber material in wet room floors is resilient to damage and has an excellent abrasive characteristic, making it highly functional for people with disabilities.
What are the other pros of rubber floors?
- Less maintenance
- Easy to clean
- Eco-friendly
- Durable
- Quite costly but worth the investment
Contact The Professionals At Age Care
Call our team at Age Care today to find out more about bathroom flooring for the elderly or those with mobility issues.
