There are people with reduced mobility in 6% of Spanish homes. These houses must have special characteristics due to their owners’ specific needs. How can you renovate your home to turn it into an adapted house?
Remove barriers
Accessibility is one of the key aspects in an adapted house. For that reason, the Technical Code for special Building suggests an 80-cm wide frame to ease movement and manoeuvre ability.
Including ramps and lifting devices also helps to improve the quality of life of people with reduced mobility inside the house.
It is necessary to include new elements or to modify the existing ones. To take into account the height of the furniture in the house is also important. It is not recommendable for it to be higher than 150 cm to avoid reaching problems. To install low handles and to adapt windows and outdoors doors will help to improve accessibility and speed of access to different rooms.
Tips: Renovating an adapted house
It is important to adapt each space for it to be functional. Some examples are:
- Bathroom: include controllers with the appropriate disposition. On the other hand, the toilet shall be adapted and include a grab rail. The sink shall have free space underneath to make room for the wheelchair.
- Kitchen: every appliance and tool shall be arranged at an accessible height.
- Bedroom: the bed shall be arranged at the same height of the wheelchair and built-in wardrobes which do not take too much space are recommended.
Subsidies to renovate an adapted house
There may be economic obstacles when we want to renovate a home to adapt it for people with reduced mobility. However, some autonomous communities such as Madrid help with those renovations costs up to 3,000€. In order to be entitled to apply for such subsidies, the following requirements shall be fulfilled:
- The house shall not be included within the scope of integrated rehabilitation area.
- The house shall have been built at least 15 years ago.
- The renovation plan shall be coherent with its conservation status.
- The renovation process shall not start before having obtained the Provisional Qualification.
