There is a real dividing line in bathroom work, and knowing which side you are on saves a great deal of money.
Side one: equipment
For somebody who can step over a tub edge with support, or walk into a shower and needs to sit, the answer is equipment rather than construction.
A transfer bench straddling the tub edge so they sit down outside and slide across. A shower chair. Grab bars at the entry and inside. A handheld shower head. Non-slip matting.
That combination goes in during a morning, costs a few hundred dollars, and solves most of what people are actually asking about. All of it ships free from our online shop.
Side two: construction
For somebody who travels seated in a wheelchair, no amount of equipment gets them over a threshold and into a tub. That needs a roll-in shower with a level entry, and it is building work.
The dividing question is simple: can they get over the edge at all, with help? If yes, equipment. If no, construction.
What a roll-in shower requires
- A level or near-level entry. Which usually means lowering the floor or building up the rest of the room, and that is the expensive part.
- Drainage that works without a lip. A linear drain or a graded floor.
- Waterproofing (tanking) across floor and walls, because water goes where it likes without a tray.
- Space to turn. A wheelchair needs room to get in, turn and get out.
- Grab bars into blocking added behind the walls while they are open.
- A folding seat fixed to structure rather than a loose chair.
The Access Board sets out the technical requirements for bathing rooms. A private home is not bound by them and they are the right reference for what works.
The thing to do while the walls are open
Add blocking behind the walls for grab bars, everywhere one might ever go, whether or not you fit bars now.
It costs almost nothing during the work and a great deal afterward. This is the single cheapest piece of future-proofing in any bathroom, and it is the one most often skipped.
What we do not sell
We do not sell or install walk-in tubs. They are expensive, they mean removing a bathroom, and they require sitting in the tub while it fills and drains, which plenty of people dislike once they try it.
If a caregiver will be in the room
Say so at the survey. It changes the layout entirely, because the room has to hold two people and one of them needs to be beside rather than behind. This is the detail most often left out of a bathroom plan.
Start with the cheaper side
Try the equipment first unless the person is clearly past it. A transfer bench and two grab bars answer the question for a great many households, and if they do not, you have lost very little and learned something.
Our bathroom safety guide covers the rest, and our grab bar guide explains why the fixing behind a bar matters more than the bar itself.
What it costs, in shape rather than numbers
Equipment is a few hundred dollars and a morning. A full roll-in conversion is a bathroom refit with waterproofing, drainage and often floor work, and it belongs in the same budget conversation as a kitchen.
The gap between those two is enormous, which is why the dividing question matters so much: can they get over the edge at all, with help?
Water temperature
Rarely discussed and worth a paragraph. Reduced sensation means somebody may not feel water that is too hot until it has burned them. A thermostatic mixing valve, or simply turning the cylinder down, addresses it permanently and costs very little.
Taps and controls
Lever taps rather than round knobs, positioned so they can be reached from a seated position and from outside the spray. Nobody should be reaching through hot water to adjust it, and nobody should be turning under running water to get out.
Drying and dressing
The part everybody forgets. Somewhere to sit outside the shower, a towel within reach of that seat, and a clear route back to the bedroom. A perfectly executed wet room with nowhere to dry off has solved half the problem.
Our bathroom safety guide covers the equipment end, and the Access Board publishes the technical requirements worth using as a benchmark.
Ask for the equipment quote too
Whoever quotes a conversion should also be willing to price the equipment alternative, so you can see both. A company unwilling to quote the cheaper answer alongside the expensive one has told you something.
All consultations, estimates and scopes of work are free of charge with no pressure or obligation. Shower seats, transfer benches and grab bars ship free from our online shop.