An accessible bathroom is built around what one person can do, now and in five years. The specification comes before any finish, because almost everything that matters is structural or set at rough in: rail backing, door width, a shower floor level with the room, and where the falls run.

Why this comes up so often here

Narre Warren filled with young families buying new brick veneer through the 1970s and 1980s, and a large share of those buyers never moved out. The suburb therefore holds a deep pool of owners now in their seventies and eighties, still living in a three bedroom single storey house with one bathroom.

That original bathroom is close to the hardest configuration to make accessible. It has a 900 by 900 fibreglass base with a hob to step over, a steel bath occupying a whole wall, a vanity with a cupboard underneath that a walking frame cannot get near, a separate toilet off the hallway in a room roughly 900 mm wide, and internal doors that are often 720 mm.

The opposite situation is just as common: an estate house south of the freeway where a parent has moved in. Those are four bedroom double storey builds with a downstairs bathroom or powder room that can often be converted, and an ensuite upstairs that is no part of the answer. Working out which room to modify is the first conversation, and it belongs before anyone measures anything.

Which room to modify

House type	Room usually modified	Reason
1970s to 1980s single storey, one bathroom	The main bathroom, often with the hallway toilet wall taken out	It is the only wet area, and the extra width from the toilet is what makes a step free shower fit
Oldest fabric in the suburb, small wet areas	The main bathroom, with the services renewed	Original subfloor or in slab plumbing means the room is being rebuilt regardless
Double storey estate home, parent moved in	The downstairs bathroom or powder room	A stair run makes the upstairs ensuite the wrong target whatever is done to it
Single storey estate home, two bathrooms	The second bathroom, left as the accessible one	The main bathroom stays conventional for the rest of the household

What gets changed

Step free shower. The hob comes out, the floor is set to fall to the waste, and the shower floor finishes level with the rest of the room. This single change makes the biggest difference and is the hardest to retrofit afterwards, because it depends on the substrate.
Grab rail backing. Solid noggins or sheet backing built into the wall before lining, at the positions the rails will occupy. Rails screwed to plasterboard with hollow wall anchors will not hold a fall.
Slip resistance. Floor tile chosen for its wet slip rating ahead of its looks, in a smaller format so there is more grout line underfoot.
Doorway width. Widening the opening, rehanging the door to swing outward, or changing to a cavity slider so the door cannot be blocked from inside.
Fixture heights. Pan height, basin height and mirror position set to the person rather than to the standard cabinet.
Tapware. Lever or paddle mixers, with a thermostatic or temperature limiting valve where scalding is a concern.
Shower seat. A fold down seat on a backed wall, or a built in bench, decided at framing stage.
Screen. Often a half height fixed panel or a curtain in place of a full screen, so a carer or a wheeled chair can get in.
Lighting and heating. Brighter and more even light, and a heat source that needs no reaching.

The specification comes first

Where a support program is funding the work, the funder normally sets the specification and wants an assessment before approving anything, so check those requirements before asking for a quote. Where it is being paid for privately, an occupational therapist assessment is still the sensible first step, because rail positions, seat height and door swing come out of watching the person use the room rather than out of a catalogue.

We quote to the written specification. Where there is no assessment, we quote what has been asked for and say plainly which parts would normally be revisited once one exists.

The order of work

Assessment and written specification, with rail positions marked on a plan.
Site visit and measure, taking in the door approach and the hallway width outside the room.
Written fixed price quote against that specification.
Demolition, with the sheeting sampled first on any house built before 1990 and nothing disturbed until the result is back.
Framing changes: door opening, rail backing, seat backing, any wall coming out.
Plumbing and electrical rough in, including the temperature limiting valve.
Substrate and screed set for a level entry shower.
Waterproofing, with the membrane laid to AS 3740 and carried up the shower walls to the height the housing provisions set.
Tiling, fit off, rails fixed into the backing, and a walk through with the person who will use the room.

Step 9 matters. A rail 100 mm from where it should be is no help at all, and the only way to know is to have the user in the room before the silicone has gone off.

Where a wall comes out

Widening a doorway, or taking out the wall between the bathroom and the separate toilet, is the alteration most likely to bring a building surveyor into an accessible job, so read what the law requires before the plan is finalised rather than after the price is signed.

The wall itself is worth thinking about early for a second reason. In the 1970s and 1980s layout, combining the bathroom and the hallway toilet is usually the only way to get a step free shower, a turning space and a door that opens outward into the same room. It is also what turns a like for like renovation into a job with framing, a new ceiling line and a relocated waste, so it belongs in the first conversation and not in a variation halfway through. The scope of that combined job is covered on small bathrooms and powder rooms.

Living in the house during the work

Most of these jobs are in one bathroom houses where the person cannot easily go and stay elsewhere. That gets planned rather than improvised. The separate hallway toilet is kept working as long as possible, the demolition and clearance stages are compressed into the fewest days, and a temporary washing arrangement is agreed in writing before the start date. Where a portable shower or a relative’s house is part of the plan, it goes in the program.

What it costs

An accessible renovation of a small original bathroom starts around $10,500 to $21,000 and more often lands in the $21,000 to $36,750 band, because a level entry shower, a widened opening and rail backing add framing and substrate work that a like for like job does not carry. Where a wall comes out to combine the bathroom and the separate toilet, or the room is large, it moves toward $36,750 to $57,750. A screen, where one is used at all, runs $1,200 to $3,500, a vanity $500 to $3,700, and floor tiling $90 to $190 per m2.

For the general scope of a strip out and rebuild see full bathroom renovations, and for the questions worth asking any renovator before signing see choosing a bathroom renovator. Attach the specification or the therapist’s assessment to the quote form.

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Accessible and ageing in place bathrooms