Your Home Renovation Ideas

You're not getting any younger, and any young children you have are getting older and jumpier. Bathroom safety should be a primary concern in any bathroom remodeling project. Installing safety guardrails is a good way to start. Guardrails do not have to be the industrial stainless steel bars that are found in hospital bathrooms and oversized bathroom stalls. Bathroom safety bars are available in many colors, and enamel finishes can personalize a look to match any bathroom décor.

Bathroom falls created 75% of reported bathroom injuries – and that's not including the bump on the head that didn't make it to the ER room, but still gave a headache and bruise worth remembering. As we get older, arthritis, injuries and other ailments make it more difficult to jump in and out of the shower or rise and shine out of the bathtub. But bathroom guardrails support old and young alike.

To keep the family safe, start with adding guardrails around your shower and bathtub. One handrail should be installed on the outside wall to assist with climbing in and out of a bathtub or shower. A vertical handrail that allows someone to grip it at 40” to 50” above the floor is the recommended installation height. Experts also recommend a horizontal grab rail inside the bathtub enclosure that is between 34” and 40” above the tub floor. Ideally, there should be one at each end of the bathtub walls. If you have a shower, but no bathtub, you should install one vertical bar on the outside of the shower, and one vertical bar on the inside of the shower.

Diagonal safety handrails are ideal inside the shower or tub if there is a mix of children and adults or significant differences in height between household members. Don't just go by recommend installation heights - have each member of the household get in the tub and determine the height that is best for them.

In order to keep the safety handrails safe, it's imperative that they are installed securely. Grabbing onto a handlebar to prevent a fall, then having the safety bar pull out of wall, defeats the purpose of accident prevention. When you install your bathroom handrails, make sure they are securely fastened to the studs and driven in at least one inch deep using (at least) two-inch stainless steel No. 10 or No. 12 pan head screws. Avoid securing the grab bar to a hollow wall, and don't use standard fasteners made for hollow walls. Look for specialty products made specifically for installing handrails on hollow walls. Installing safety bars on concrete and in fiberglass will require different hardware.

Once the handrails are installed, make sure everyone gets in and tries to pull it out – having a member of the family ready to catch the tester in case the handrail gives. If the safety bar is installed correctly on standard studs and driven in at least one inch deep it should support 250 lbs.

Bathroom safety bars are not made for ailing great-great-grandparents only. They keep young children and rushing teenagers and adults safe as well. If there is ever an accident, injury or illness in the family, handrails will make movement easier at a time when everything else is a struggle. Slippery floors are a fact of bathroom life. Installing bathroom safety bars as a part of your bathroom remodeling project will keep your family safe and fall-free.