Installing a wet room

[NetZeroZealot]

I think we want to do this for my elderly parents. Stairlift probably not an option as they live in a listed house, and both upstairs bathrooms have steps to access.

Interested in others' experiences. Did you just use a local builder/plumber or a wetroom/ disability specialist? I think we are going to need to move some partitions to make the bets use of the space available.

If you use an ordinary building company is it still VAT exempt?

So we have a downstairs wc across from my parents bedroom our only bath/ shower is upstairs. I have plans and images of wet room done in that size room in a similar house to ours. Occupational health came and had a look. Their answers were...".we can't get a wheel chair in that size wet room if and when your dad will need it." She looked and said "oh u can't have a stair lift either. Maybe on days when dad feels unwell he shouldn't shower and then we can provide a wet chair that he can put in the downstairs WC and strip wash when he feels too ill to go upstairs and to prevent him falling or feeling unwell and maybe from now on limit full showers to twice a week" then she said "since your parents are elderly you should have a bungalow so we can see at getting them rehoused" it took us 3 years and 3 weeks shy of homelessness to get this place and my parents live with us the council knew all of this before they got us this house. Dad's had cancer for 5 years. So I said to her but even though the WC is small is possible. She said "apply to the council and go private our criteria is we need a bigger room". I am really upset and not sure what to do....we plan on being here forever and our tenancy is secure. What I am asking is do councils routinely refuse things like this? All the alteration would require is moving the handbasin to the corner of the room. The loo etc all stays where it is. It's also not a cement floor and the vinyl flooring in that room is already in disrepair exposing the floor. Someone recommended I just do the work and apologise later since no one ever comes here???? Help any advice will be appreciated

For stairlifts, Acorn have been very helpful for us and an awkward staircase.

Does it have to be a wet room? There are there walk in shower options that may be quicker and cheaper.

If you can I would strongly recommend getting an OT to advise on the layout / style of the bathroom.

FIL had their bathroom redesigned with the intention of making the shower and toilet more accessible to my MIL. Unf he didn’t get advice from an OT, just used a local bathroom fitting company which claimed to have worked for lots of older people.

As a pp says, the space needed to allow for drainage under the shower tray meant it was too high for MIL to step into, and she had to use an extra step, which was beyond her abilities and there was nowhere to fit an external rail 🙄. He chose a mixer bar with no sticky-out handles - she couldn’t grip them, so she couldn’t turn it on or off by herself. And the way the sliding doors were positioned, no one could reach in and turn the shower on without getting soaked themselves. 🙄. What a waste. He really would have benefited from a trained professionals helping to design something that would work for MILs conditions.

No it doesn't. But the OT is fixated on rehousing to a home with one level. Also we cannot have a stair lift at all, it's too narrow and curved. I will save to put it in myself but I just want to know has anyone done this before.

We converted PILs bath to a big walk in shower if anyone's interested. We did it over a weekend as the "specialists" wanted £10k!
But to install one of these big low profile shower trays and grab rails is probably cheaper than a wet room.

That's similar to what my parents did

Will they be showering by themselves or with a carer?

I had a shower room installed for my late father, when he was still relatively fit and able. However, as he became more frail I reailised with increasing horror that I'd made some poor design choices.

I did install a floor mounted sink with drawers, so that was very stable, but he use everything the balance and support himself, including the shower screen, the shower head riser, and left the door opening inwards. Outward would have been easier to open when he fell infront of it!

We did find some NRS towel rails that were hidden hand rails, which also looked good, s swapped those for the standard ones we'd originally bought. And an NRS loo roll holder that was also a disguised handrail, also a shower shelf that incorporated a handrail. We changed out the shower riser to one from B&Q that was also a hidden handrail. And just had to keep reminding him not to hold onto the shower screen.

Yes after the photo was taken we added waist level grab rails along the back and end so MIL could manoeuvre herself onto the shower chair.

By himself. Our issue is the only bath is upstairs....he battles with feeling ill and very dizzy and has had a stair tumble already. We just need a shower downstairs.

This was my post from a year ago. We never did the wetroom, it was easier to move the bed downstairs where there is step-free access to a toilet. Dad also uses a bottle in the night and can still manage the stairs for a supervised bath every week. But hopefully the helpful posts are useful to others with the same considerations.