Shower Units allow retrofit of safety features.
Press Release Summary:
Adaptable access, drop-in showers have walls backed with ½ in. plywood to facilitate installation of safety hardware that meets senior resident's individual needs. Grab bars, semi-permanent threshold adapters, water dams, and seating can be installed with shower unit or whenever residents have special access needs, such as low step-over or wheel chair entry. Three finishes, all having appearance of ceramic tile, offer ease of maintenance with polyester Gelcoat finish.Original Press Release:
"Adaptable Access" Value Engineering Shower Units to Allow Easy Retrofit of Safety Fixtures for Enhanced Access that Meets Senior Residents' Changing Access Needs
With the swell of elderly citizens on its way, assisted living and other senior care facilities are part of a burgeoning market where the safety and comfort requirements are a moving target. As seniors continue to live longer, their fitness and safety requirements evolve, making safe and comfortable access to bath areas a special concern. For while American Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG) and local building codes provide practical parameters, providing seniors with "adaptable" bathing access deserves special attention from architects and developers as well as facility owners and operators.
Unquestionably, bathing areas are among the most hazardous in any dwelling. Safe access in those of senior housing is of paramount interest since a strain or fall in the bath area can result in a life change that eventually costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, and compromise the quality and even longevity of a senior's life.
"While we are very aware of the needs of seniors, we try not to overwhelm those who are still relatively fit with too many handles, bars and other safety features," says architect Gregory Irwin, principal of Irwin-Pancake Architects, Huntington Beach, CA, which has specialized in senior housing for over 35 years. "We find that uniformly designing bathing areas such as shower stalls with a lot of institutional-looking fixtures can be demoralizing to the senior resident who doesn't need them yet. It can have the unnecessary affect of reminding them of where they are headed in terms of their mobility."
It is Irwin-Pancake's philosophy that bathing areas in senior facilities can be safe and beautiful. To that end, Irwin-Pancake architects approach the design of bathing facilities by looking for maximum flexibility in safe access features while keeping an eye on aesthetics that will enhance the comfort and appeal of living quarters.
"In the overall, our goal is to aid a person in their infirmities without reminding them of their infirmities," says Irwin. "The bathing areas we design, typically shower units, will allow for universal access plus the easy placement of attractive retrofit fixtures, such as grab bars and seats, and built-in features such as a water dam that allows easy wheel chair access."
A team approach to design
Like an increasing number of architects and designers of senior housing, Irwin-Pancake consults with vendors to determine what structural, aesthetic and safety features will best fit a building owner's and occupants' needs. "While cost is always a factor, it is in everybody's interest to ensure that bathing facilities are not only safe and sound, but provide long-term service and value," adds principal Douglas Pancake, AIA.
For shower units, Irwin-Pancake often teams with Best Bath Systems, Boise, Idaho, an innovative leader in adaptable bathing products since 1972. A division of Fiberglass Systems, Inc., Best Bath sells a broad line of commercial and residential products including shower units and whirlpool and soaking baths directly to dealers, developer-owners and contractors throughout the U.S. Interacting with designers and builders to develop safe bathing systems with flexible access features is a Best Bath specialty.
"Working directly with architects and designers is our preferred method of developing specifications," says Gary Multanen, Best Bath Systems President. "Accessible and adaptable is our culture, our niche. Because most people think, including many architects: "If it's going to be safe, it's going to look institutional." That is not the case with our products, and our reps work closely with designers to ensure they understand the wide variety of custom looks they can achieve and while incorporating all the safety features they need to meet ADAAG as well as local codes."
Multanen agrees that bath and shower units don't have to be outfitted with safety hardware that is not yet necessary for a senior who is still relatively fit. For that reason Best Bath has designed unique drop-in shower units with walls that are backed with 1/2-inch plywood, to facilitate the installation of safety hardware that meets a senior resident's individual needs. For example, grab bars can be installed to suit a resident's height or infirmity and adjusted at a later date if the need changes. Semi-permanent threshold adapters, water dams and seating can be installed with the shower unit or whenever residents have special access needs, such as low step-over or wheel chair entry.
"All of these safety features can be incorporated while maintaining a designer look," Multanen says. A range of basic bath and shower unit designs are available plus fixtures such as soap dishes, seats and water control fixtures is available, plus various styles of safety hardware and other accessories.
To make showers look less institutional, Best Bath offers three distinct finishes, all having the appearance of genuine ceramic tile but the ease of maintenance of a luxurious polyester Gelcoat finish. Best Bath's ability to have multiple colors in a single unit is unique to the industry.
Developer-contractor point of view
What about the developer's and construction contractor's perspectives -- what do they see as the important factors concerning bathing areas in senior housing?
Suffolk Construction Company, Inc. is a general contracting, construction management and design/build firm with offices located in Boston, Massachusetts, West Palm Beach, Florida and Irvine, California, feels that quality and adaptability are major considerations. With prestigious clients including Sunrise Assisted Living, Suffolk wants assurance from its suppliers that there will be very few callbacks for installation issues and no questions about solid warranties.
"When it comes to bathing units, 'set them and forget them' is very important to us," says Bob Calvano, General Superintendent for Suffolk's California Division. "We insist on that as well as meeting state and local building codes and ADAAG, depending on the specific requirements of a given project, such as various Sunrise facilities."
Suffolk, which frequently uses Best Bath Systems products, can also of retrofit bath facilities as needed. Calvano sees real value in the ability to do so. "It's a big plus. Best Bath offers a plethora of options and are designed to make it very easy to install them in different types of spaces, depending on the needs of the resident," he says. "Also, they send in a support team to take care of any patchwork or necessary adjustments after the shower system is installed, which ensures that we'll have a completely finished facility with no callback problems."
Jim Bishop a Project Manager at Continuing Life Communities' La Costa Glen Retirement Community in Carlsbad, California, says that bathing structures offering adaptable access enhance long-term value as well as safety.
"As an owner-developer-operator, Continuing Life Communities has a vital interest throughout the lifespan of the facility," Bishop says. "So, in addition to meeting ADAAG and local codes, we want to be sure that our bathing units 'normally showers' have the flexibility to meet the safety and comfort needs of our residents."
Bishop says that among the requirements for shower unit features is the flexibility of having a semi-permanent curb at the shower entry threshold. "We install that curb for all of our showers, so if a resident needs handicapped access, we simply remove the curb and the shower door. A water retention dam prevents water spilling from the shower onto the bathroom floor. That configuration allows us to have shower doors, which our residents prefer over curtains."
Bishop also points out that many older patients find it a little difficult or are unsteady when they have to step over a four-inch curb. "In those cases we install a vertical grab bar to give the person added leverage and balance as they step over a curb." Bishop adds that if a shower unit is designed to facilitate retrofit safety and comfort fixtures, the facility owner can save on initial construction costs by installing the retrofit fixtures on an as-needed basis.
Ensuring that adaptable access specs are met
"We're very experienced in the senior housing market, so when it comes to the bathing units we specify, we take pains to make sure that the general contractor does not make substitutions," says Irwin-Pancake's Gregory Irwin. "We're willing to fight for our Best Bath Systems specifications because of product flexibility, advantages we have in detailing, and the fact that it is a better product for the long term. In many instances it isn't enough to be specific about brand and model. You have to follow up with the contractors and the owner to keep everybody on the same page so that they don't say, "Well, this other shower model looks pretty good and it will save us some money." Substitutions are part of the business. But when you consider the importance of safety through the adaptable access features that we specify, as well as our concerns about long-term quality and serviceability of the shower or bath unit, we make every effort to ensure that the product we specify is the one that's installed."
If the supplier specializes in meeting senior or handicapped requirements, this view is equally sound. "Much of the reason for Best Bath's success in the senior care market is due to our participating early in the design of a facility," says Lee Cook, Best Bath Systems Sales Manager for the California region. "By doing that we solve potential problems in the early stages of design. We sometimes work on projects two years before construction begins. We'll often sit down with the architect, developer and the builder and review the criteria of the project and value engineer in advance of final plans, so everybody knows what we are trying to accomplish."
Cook adds that true substitutions are not always possible, depending on initial design and anticipated retrofit requirements. "There are a lot of things that we do, especially in terms of adaptable access, that can't be substituted. Some manufacturers will tell you, "You need a 5-foot shower? I can do that for $300." But, in fact, neither their approach nor their product is actually similar. What we're doing is value-engineering a product so that it will offer a very high level of safety, and also make it adaptable so that you can make changes down the road."
Best Bath Systems include a wide range of commercial and residential models in the three simulated tile patterns. Their American Home, Whirljet, Barrier Free, and Access product lines combine for over 300 models. Best Bath Systems also offers numerous units designed specifically for California, Texas and Massachusetts building requirements. To facilitate design and engineering tasks, drawings of various packages and fixtures, including printable views and downloadable AutoCAD files are available from the Best Bath Systems web site.
For more information, contact Best Bath Systems, 4545 Enterprise, Boise, Idaho 83705; Phone (800) 727-9907; Fax (800) 627-0929; Email sales@best-bath.com; Visit the web site www.best-bath.com.
