Question: My husband, who is now in his 80s, was recently hospitalized due to a chronic medical condition, and last week was moved from the hospital to the rehabilitation center.
A vocational therapist, who looked like she is a teenager but was very professional, visited our house yesterday to see if any improvements need to be made before he can return home.
The one thing she said that we need is to have grab bars installed into the shower that he will be using.
Our shower was remodeled several years back with beautiful tilework but no grab bars. How can we get grab bars installed now so long after the bathroom was remodeled?
Your Handyman: Very sorry to hear that your husband was hospitalized, and even though Santa Barbara is blessed with some of the best health care in the world, I’m sure he is counting the hours until he can return home.
Installing grab bars is a relatively quick and easy improvement to your home and, in my opinion, all showers should have grab bars — regardless of the age of the people in the home.
People of all ages experience injuries from falling, and seniors can experience life-changing injuries from an accidental fall, especially onto a hard surface like a bathtub or tiled floor.
Of all the places we go to on our everyday travels, the bathroom is the most likely place for a slip and fall to occur, with the shower or bathtub being the most likely spot for it to happen.
You may recall that former Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., who was Vice President Al Gore’s running mate in the 2000 presidential election, slipped and fell in the shower, hit his head on a hard tiled surface and sadly died.
I slipped in a shower/tub in a hotel years ago, and was very lucky to catch myself, but was a little miffed that the hotel had not provided either a nonskid tub surface or a bath mat.
We had a customer several years back who was a very fit senior man who had a slip and fall in a hotel shower, was injured, and the quality of his life took a dramatic downturn.
Locating a wall stud accurately behind the tile is something that I have never been able to do, and is not necessary for the installation, which is relatively easy with the correct tools and some experience.
I have found that the best method is to use a masonry bit on a rotary impact drill while carefully controlling the speed of the drill to avoid cracking the tile.
Once the holes are drilled, a ribbed plastic anchor is tapped into the hole and a stainless-steel screw is seated into this anchor.
If installed correctly, these anchors are very strong and provide a safe installation through the tile and into the concrete behind the tile.
If your shower enclosure is fiberglass or acrylic, the only way I know of to make a safe installation is to open the drywall behind the shower and install wood blocking, which can be a bigger project.
I have seen grab bars for sale that have suction cups that stick to the shower wall, which I have no experience with, but it doesn’t seem like a good idea to me.
A smaller bar can be installed onto the drywall by the commode, and it will need to be vertical and screwed into a wall stud.
The most basic style of grab bar is made from shiny stainless steel, can be purchased at any hardware store, provides a very safe handhold and usually costs less than $50, depending on the size.
More esthetically pleasing grab bars in different styles and metal finishes to match other hardware in your bathroom can be purchased at our local plumbing stores or online, and are significantly more expensive.
As far as the number of bars that you need, the size and location, I would rely on the advice of the very young-looking therapist, and I hope your husband makes a speedy recovery.
