Your Golden Years: Essential Age-Friendly Home Features

As you approach your golden years, your home may struggle to keep up with your changing needs. If you want to enjoy your retirement in the comfort of your home, you’ll have to make some aging-in-place modifications.

Don’t know where to start? Handyman Connection® of Lexington-Nicholasville shares some suggestions below.

Start With the Bathroom

If you haven’t started making aging-in-place modifications yet, it’s a good idea to start with your bathroom. Since it’s usually the smallest part of a house, making it age-friendly will be a bit challenging. The difficulty is compounded by the fact bathroom renovations aren’t a piecemeal task; you can’t add features over time. From the start, you need to have a clear vision of your ideal bathroom.

With this goal in mind, it’s worth checking out the National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB) compilation of some of the most popular aging-in-place bathroom modifications for the last quarter of 2018.

Grab Bars and Non-Slip Floors 

Grab bars are a simple yet essential feature for many homeowners, with 88% of those surveyed installing them in their bathrooms. The feature’s popularity isn’t surprising, considering the risk slips and falls pose to the elderly; 10% of these injuries can inflict major injuries on seniors.

Although non-slip floors are lower on the NAHB’s list, we recommend installing them alongside grab bars. Grab bars can provide something for seniors to hold onto while getting out of the shower tub, but it’s arguably more important to tackle the root cause of the problem – slippery floors.

Curbless Showers and Wider Doorways 

Speaking of getting in and out of tubs, curbless showers placed third on the list. To be precise, 82% of the respondents installed them. They can make taking a shower a lot easier to navigate, not to mention free up valuable space in your bathroom. A wider doorway would also make it easier for seniors, especially those who need wheelchairs, to enter the bathroom.

Still Can’t Picture Your Ideal Bathroom? 

Handyman Connection of Lexington-Nicholasville can help you plan an age-friendly bathroom. We also offer a wide range of general contracting services. To get a free estimate, call us at (859) 274-4477, or fill out this form.