Retrofit Bathroom Design
The universal bathroom design movement which began some years ago is still going on despite the recession and housing crash in the US. This movement began with some leading architects and designers who promoted the idea of creating bathrooms with doors wide enough to fit wheelchairs.
Today there is a website devoted to the movement at the Center for Universal Design at North Carolina State University. According to experts on the subject, the universal design concept saves costs over time because it builds flexibility into a building design that can accommodate people with various degrees of physical disability. This saves time and costs of remodeling later on, whereas retrofitting can run up costs that range widely fro adding $10 grab bars to elevators that cost $40,000. As the Boomer generation gets older, these concepts are taking on a broader application because many of them want to stay in their own homes as long as possible.