How to Make a Bathroom Safer
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The bathroom is one of the most used rooms in the home or office and can often be the most dangerous. Between the aging population in the United States and an increasing number of bathroom injuries by people under 45, outfitting the bath with grab bars, assist bars, and other safety items is imperative to make a bathroom safer and preventing people from getting hurt. Bathroom safety should be on everyone’s checklist when they are building a new home, renovating an existing one, or just making simple upgrades.
To make a bathroom safer, here are three things to consider during your next home build or bathroom upgrade.
- Bath Safety Is for Everyone
In recent years, over 200,000 people have fallen or been injured in the bathroom. This could happen to anyone — a grandparent, a young child, an expecting mother, an athlete recovering from a sports injury. Accidents happen across all ages and ability levels.
Grab bars and assist bars can meet the needs of all ages in the home. Take the person’s age and abilities into consideration when installing the bars. What could the user need help with? Consider these five ways that bath safety can help your clients:
- Balance
- Assistance
- Leverage
- Accessibility
- Mobility
- Whole Bathroom Safety
Grab bars and assist bars are often found near the toilet for extra help getting up. When working with clients or updating your own home, it’s important to look at the bathroom as a whole. 84.5% of people between the ages of 15 and 24 who are hurt in the bathroom were in or around the bathtub or shower when it happened. To make a bathroom safer, install an assist bar on the outside of the shower or a multi-functional product like the Delta Corner Shelf with a built-in assist bar. This way you and your clients can always be a reach away from stability when using the bathtub or shower. When considering the different places to put bath safety products, think of these six different activities as examples:
- Using the toilet — Sitting down and getting up
- Showering — Getting in, around, and out of the shower
- Bathing — Getting in and out of the tub
- Bathing others — Going from a sitting to a standing position
- Around the sink — Accessing items near, below, and around the sink
- Be Functional Without Losing Style
When finishing a home or remodeling a bathroom, it’s key for the homeowner to love every aspect of his or her space without sacrificing style and design. Many consumers are hesitant to install grab bars and assist bars because of the stigma around needing help and having a grab bar in plain sight for everyone to see. Instead, many consumers have used towel bars or vanity counters as leverage as they get up. This can be dangerous because neither of these provide structural support nor are up to ADA guidelines. There are many options in the market today that are designed with style trends in mind and are available in multiple finishes while also exceeding ADA standards. When working with clients, share with them the various options to keep them safe without distracting from the style of their bathrooms.
Visit your Home Depot store or the Home Depot website to find a wide array of bathroom safety products to keep everyone in the home safe.
