If you are not careful, your bathroom can turn into quite a dangerous place, with its slippery surfaces and metal fittings jutting out of the walls, especially for senior citizens and specially abled people. However, it is also very easy to avoid mishaps by installing simple bathroom accessories, like bar grab handles for the bath and toilet areas. When you enhance your bathroom with grab bars or grab rails, you make it a safer place, allowing the elderly, people with limited mobility, injured people, and specially abled people to maintain their balance when they use the bathroom.
What Is a Bathroom Grab Bar?
Grab bars are handles for the bath and toilet area of your bathroom, designed to help people maintain their balance and to assist them in standing or moving around the bathroom. A bathroom grab bar is meant to prevent falls, take the weight off the person holding onto it to lessen fatigue while moving around the bathroom, and to assist people when they step over something or get up from a seated position. You can choose to install longer grab bars for your bathroom to provide grab assistance across a wider area or smaller bathroom bar handles for specific applications in smaller areas.
Importance of a Bathroom Handlebar
A bathroom with grab bars is safer and more accessible. Grab handles for the bath and toilet area can prove to be essential for people with reduced balance or strength, pain, or with weaker eyesight. Here are some of the top benefits of enhancing your bathroom with grab bars:
- Enhanced Safety: One of the top benefits of installing handles for the bath and toilet areas is improved bathroom safety. Well-placed grab bars for the bathroom can provide solid support and help avoid accidents, like slips and falls, because of slippery bathroom surfaces.
- Support for the Elderly and Specially Abled: Bathroom bar handles are especially useful for those with limited mobility, including the elderly, people who may be injured or have undergone surgery, and specially abled individuals.
- More Comfort: A bathroom bar can make daily bathroom activities more comfortable for everyone. Bathroom bar handles facilitate easy access to fixtures, like the shower or bathtub.
- Aesthetics: A bathroom bar is not just a functional element; it can also help enhance the aesthetics of your space. You can choose from a wide range of colours and finishes for your bathroom grab bar to ensure visual continuity.
Types of Grab Bars to Choose from
If you are looking for grab bars for your bathroom, it is important that you choose the right type of grab bar based on your needs. Some of the most popular types of grab bars include:
- Straight Grab Bars: These are the most common types of grab bars for the bathroom and can be a small handle or hand grip, a long bar, or may even span an entire wall. These bars are generally installed in strategic places in the bathroom to prevent falls and assist mobility. Straight grab bars can be installed vertically or diagonally for better grip, depending on the area where it is installed.
- L-Shaped Grab Bars: L-shaped bathroom bars are installed in fixed positions on the floor and wall. These bars are designed to protrude from the wall and angle down to the floor. Apart from vertical gripping options, this type of bathroom handlebar also provides weight support like a handrail.
- U-Shaped Grab Bars: These bars protrude from the wall in an oblong loop that offers a wider range of gripping options without you having to remain close to the wall to use them. These types of grab bars prove to be very useful for those using wheelchairs or other mobility aids and allow for more support and balance as you move between areas of the bathroom that involve crossing an open space.
- Support Arms: Support arms extend outwards from the wall and are generally installed near bathtubs, shower chairs, and toilets where a distance is necessary for approaching and using these areas. Sticking out like the arms of a chair, support arms offer support and stability in the bathroom.
- Suction-Mounted Grab Bars: You can enhance your bathroom with grab bars that can be mounted with ease by sticking them to the right surface. However, a suction-mounted bathroom handlebar is not meant to be weight-bearing, so it should not be used for an accessible bathroom remodel.
Where Should a Bathroom Handlebar be Installed?
A bathroom handlebar should be installed near a wet and slippery surface, like the shower floor, toilet area, and bathtub, to best assist users in avoiding accidents in the bathroom. Some of the top areas where a bathroom grab rail can be installed include the side wall of the bathtub or shower area, the back wall of the shower, the side wall of a built-in shower seat, and within the toilet area. Ensure that you take the specific needs of all users into account before determining where you need grab bars, which grab bars will be best suited, and where they should be placed.
When it comes to designing or remodelling a bathroom while ensuring easy accessibility, you must consider various additions, like raised toilet seats, anti-slip mats, etc., that reduce the risk of accidents while also enhancing comfort. For the best bathroom sanitaryware, explore the collection offered by Hindware to find products that not only suit your requirements perfectly but also come with a guarantee of high quality and functionality.
