Adapting an apartment for seniors

Adapting the bath for seniors

Adaptation often starts in the bathroom: a shower with a floor drain in place of the bath, with no high edge to step over. For a shower with a floor drain, the floor needs a slope towards the drain, waterproofing and tiles. The manufacturer of Ceresit CL 51 recommends at least two coats of waterproofing so that the dry layer is 0.5 mm, and working waterproofing tape into the joints. More on the work: shower with a floor drain.

If the bath has to be kept, it can be replaced with another model. In your request, write what exactly gets in the way: a high edge, a slippery floor, a narrow door opening, the height of the toilet. Sanitary rooms in new apartments are designed so that, if necessary, they can be adapted for people with mobility impairments without affecting load-bearing structures; in older buildings this must be checked in each apartment.

Accessibility in the apartment: doors, thresholds and common property

Thresholds between rooms can be removed if the floor levels are close; if not, the floor is levelled. Widening a door opening in a non-load-bearing partition is usually simplified renovation with a construction notice in BIS. If the opening is in a load-bearing wall, it is simplified reconstruction: it needs an architect and a structural engineer, an explanatory memorandum and, if the building is divided into apartment properties, the consent of more than half of the apartment owners. See creating a door opening.

Outside the apartment, the Law on Residential Properties allows an owner, to ensure accessibility and after informing the association or the building manager in advance, to install a lift in the stairwell, build a ramp or otherwise adapt the common property.

Adapting an apartment for people with disabilities: the Riga allowance

• Who for: a person whose place of residence is declared in Riga with a group I or II disability who uses a wheelchair, a person with a group I or II visual disability, and children with such a disability.
• How much: up to €6,000 for a person in a wheelchair, up to €2,250 for a person with a visual disability.
• What it covers: the adaptation work and the necessary documents, for example an estimate and a design. In an apartment building it does not include common areas or technical aids paid for by the state.
• Where to apply: at the Riga Social Service with an application and a medical extract (form 027/u) or a doctor's opinion. A tenant needs a tenancy agreement for at least 5 years and the owner's written consent.
• Who carries out the work: a company registered in the commercial register; the Service pays the company after the work is accepted. If the work has not started within 6 months of the agreement, the allowance is not paid out, and a queue may form.
• When it is not granted: if unauthorised construction was previously carried out in the home, or if the home is pledged (except for a mortgage loan for its purchase); repeat grants no more often than once every 5 years, with the opinion of the Service's occupational therapist.

This allowance applies to people with the disabilities named. If a senior has not been granted a disability group, ask the Riga Social Service or your own municipality what options there are in their case.

The adaptation in the usual order

1. What gets in the way Together with the person who lives in the apartment, write down where it is hard: the bath, thresholds, doors, lighting, the height of sockets.
2. Benefit and documents If you plan to use the Riga allowance, first the application at the Social Service; if a load-bearing wall has to be changed, an explanatory memorandum.
3. Demolition The bath, old tiles, thresholds.
4. Shower and floor Floor drain, slope, waterproofing, tiling.
5. Doors and electrics Installing interior doors, moving sockets and switches to a more convenient position.

Apartment adaptation price

Adaptation is by estimate, because the work is different in each apartment. Estimate rows: floor drain installation from €100 per drain, tiling from €24/m², waterproofing in the bathroom from €6/m². Other rows: replacing or installing a bath from €130 per bath, interior door installation from €100 per door, socket, switch or light point from €12 per point. Bathroom renovation (the whole job): from €3,000. Prices are for labour. Materials are calculated separately in the estimate.

Example: tiling 18 m² × €24 = from €432, waterproofing 5 m² × €6 = from €30 and floor drain installation from €100, total from €562 (only these three jobs; demolition and sanitaryware separate).

The price is affected by the bathroom area, the condition of the walls and floor, whether pipes are changed and the finish chosen. An exact estimate can be made after seeing the apartment. All prices: prices.

What this work includes