How do I make a bathroom safer for an elderly parent?

A safer bathroom comes from a handful of changes in the right places: a slip-resistant floor and tub surface, good light, something solid to hold at the tub, shower and toilet, and a way to sit while bathing. Most of it you can do in a weekend. The grab bars are the one part worth getting exactly right.

The reason to start here is simple. Falls in and around the home are a top cause of injuries to older adults,^[1] and the bathroom is wet, hard and full of transfers from standing to sitting.

Start by watching, not buying

Before you spend anything, watch your parent use the room. Where do they steady themselves, a towel bar, the sink, the shower door? Those are the spots that need a real handhold, because a towel bar or a sink edge is not built to take a person's weight.

Floor, tub and light

The Consumer Product Safety Commission's checklist for older consumers asks whether "All bathtubs and showers are equipped with non-skid mats, abrasive strips, or surfaces that are not slippery and have at least one secure and easily graspable grab bar."^[1] It asks the same of the room: "The bathroom floor is slip-resistant or is covered with secure slip-resistant materials."^[1]

In practice that means a rubber-backed mat or adhesive strips in the tub, a mat outside it that does not slide, and no loose rugs or trailing cords. Good lighting inside and outside your home helps prevent falls,^[1] so add plug-in night lights between the bedroom and the bathroom.

Grab bars: where and how

Put one where your parent steps into the tub or shower, and one beside the toilet. For the layout, the federal ADA standard is a useful guide, though it governs public and commercial buildings rather than a private home.^[2] It calls for horizontal grab bars 33 to 36 inches above the floor, measured to the top of the bar, and a second, lower bar on the back wall of a tub 8 to 10 inches above the rim.^[2] The bar should be round, between 1 1/4 and 2 inches in outside diameter, with a 1 1/2-inch space between the bar and the wall.^[2]

The wall matters as much as the bar. Moen's instructions say both ends of the bar must be over a wood stud unless you use the maker's own SecureMount anchors.^[3] A bar held by drywall anchors alone is the classic way a grab bar fails. The standard tests a bar against a force of 250 pounds applied at any point on the bar, its fasteners, its mounting or the wall behind it.^[2]

For the installation itself, see how to install a grab bar in a shower, and for who does the work, who installs grab bars and ramps for seniors in Virginia. Prince William County lists grab bars among the accessibility upgrades that always need a permit,^[4] so ask your own building office before you start.

A way to sit, and a way to wash

A hand-held shower lets your parent bathe seated. The ADA standard specifies a shower spray unit with a hose 59 inches long minimum that works both as a fixed shower head and as a hand-held shower.^[2] How to replace a showerhead covers the swap. A portable shower chair or tub transfer bench, and a raised toilet seat, need no tools.

Water and electricity

The CPSC checklist says to set the water heater to no more than 120 degrees F to help prevent burns.^[1] It also says small electrical appliances should be kept away from sinks, tubs and other sources of water, and that bathroom receptacles should be protected by ground-fault circuit interrupters, or GFCIs, tested monthly.^[1] If a receptacle is not a GFCI, that is an electrician's job.

Stop and call a pro if

• The wall is tile, stone or fiberglass and you do not know what is behind it, or the studs are not where the bars need to go.
• The wall is soft, stained or wet where a bar would go; that is a leak to fix first.
• A bathroom receptacle is not GFCI-protected, or the water heater is gas and you want its temperature changed.
• Your parent cannot step over the tub edge at all, which points to a walk-in shower or a larger remodel.
• Your locality requires a permit for the work.

Help in Virginia

Your local Area Agency on Aging is the front door to aging services, and Virginia's Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services says its assistive technology program lets you obtain, borrow or demo devices that would improve mobility and counsel on home modifications.^[5] For bigger changes, read more remodeling answers or browse accessibility remodeling businesses. When you are ready for quotes, describe the job on Loclis once.