CRF Services Ltd

Accessible bathroom fitting: easier, safer everyday use

An accessible bathroom is one that is easier and safer to use for someone whose mobility, balance or strength has changed, or is likely to. It is not a hospital room. Done well, it looks like a good modern bathroom that happens to have no step into the shower, a toilet at a comfortable height, something solid to hold on to and a floor that is not slippery when wet. CRF Services Ltd fits these features as part of a bathroom refit for homes around Rochester and Medway, working from what the person using the room actually needs day to day.

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Start with how the room is used

The most useful conversation happens before any product is chosen. Who uses the bathroom, do they stand or sit to shower, do they use a walking aid, does anyone help them, and is the need now or something being planned for? A bathroom for a parent moving in looks different from one being future proofed by a couple in their sixties.

Where an occupational therapist has already assessed the person, their recommendations are the best starting point and the fitting is planned around them. CRF is a fitter, not a disability specialist, so clinical advice on what someone needs should come from the right professional.

Level access showers

Removing the step is usually the biggest single change. A level access shower can be a low profile tray set flush with the floor, or a fully tiled floor with a fall to a drain as in a wet room. Either way the floor build up and the waste route are checked first, because on a timber floor the fall has to be formed between or over the joists. Swapping a bath for a walk in shower is often the first step in making a bathroom accessible.

A wider shower area with a short fixed screen, rather than a narrow enclosure with doors, leaves room for a shower seat or someone helping.

Grab rails and fixings

A grab rail is only as good as what it is fixed to. On solid brick walls a rail can be fixed directly with the right anchors, but on plasterboard or stud walls it needs timber noggins or a backing board built in behind the surface, ideally before the tiles go on. That is why it is far better to decide rail positions during a refit than to add them afterwards.

Rails beside the toilet and inside the shower area
Fold down shower seat on a reinforced wall
Comfort height toilet, slightly taller than standard
Basin at a height that suits sitting or standing
Lever taps and a thermostatic shower valve
Slip resistant floor tiles or safety flooring

Toilets, basins and taps

A comfort height toilet sits a few centimetres higher than a standard pan, which makes sitting and standing easier without a raised seat. Wall hung toilets can be set at any height, but need a frame fixed to a solid wall. Lever taps are easier for weak or painful hands than small cross heads, and a thermostatic shower valve stops the water suddenly running too hot.

Floors and lighting

Slip resistance is rated on floor tiles, and smaller tiles with more grout lines give extra grip in a shower area. Contrast helps too: a toilet seat, rail or door frame in a colour that stands out from the wall is easier to find for someone with poor eyesight. Brighter, even lighting with no dark corners is part of the same thinking, with the electrical work done by a qualified electrician.

What to know before you book

Grants and funding schemes for adaptations exist, but eligibility is decided by the council and the assessment process, not by the fitter, so it is worth asking your local council before work is agreed. CRF does not arrange grants or make claims about eligibility.

Each accessible bathroom is quoted after a visit, because the floor, walls and drainage decide what is possible. The main bathroom renovations page covers how a refit is run from strip out to handover. Send photos of the room and a short note on who will use it through the contact page.

This work is part of our Bathroom Renovations service.

Common questions