Posts Tagged ‘Visitability’

Lifetime Homes Serve You

Todd Hawkins

 

Jan 7 |10:11

Just posted our first Lifetime Home Survey revision for 2013.

Among the changes since Ocorber’s last quarterly update, we discovered carpet tiles by FLOR, which can be used on the floor, walls or ceiling (e.g. soundproofing). FLOR is neat for a few reasons aside from its array of colors and being made from recycled content. The flexible carpet squares adhere to one another instead of the surface so you can easily replace just one if necessary. The product is also universally designed for multiple applications, tightly woven to promote stability by the very young or anyone with balance or mobility challenges. FLOR is an adaptable alternative for those who don’t want hardwood, ceramic or vinyl flooring.

See this innovative product among many other universally designed applications and features at LifetimeHomeSurvey.com, and please share with those you care about. Lifetime homes serve you, not the other way around.

 

Tweetle UD

Todd Hawkins

 

Dec 12 |06:49

Follow us @BuilderFish on Twitter

I learn best by breaking down the complex into smaller parts so I decided to teach Universal Design on our Twitter page by posting daily UD tips (i.e. limited to 144 characters for those who don’t tweet). Follow us by clicking here or the graphic to the right>>>>>>

I don’t want you to miss if you aren’t on Twitter so I’m pasting below the tips I’ve tweeted so far and will try to remember to provide here every so often.

  • Every owner and renter should learn about Universal Design because UD makes home life easier and more flexible.
  • Universally designed homes are  naturally multigenerational/flexible (e.g. people of any age or ability can use a zero step entrance).
  • Every home should have at least one zero step, flush threshold entry with 36″ door.
  • In a Lifetime Home, no outlets should be lower than 18″ to prevent stooping. You should easily reach both standing or seated.
  • Universal Design and “aging-in-place” (a phrase I hate) are also known as Better Living Design.
  • There’s no real point in having a curbed shower, and shower drains do not have to go in the middle of the floor.
  • Lever door handles are more efficient and flexible to use than traditional doorknobs. Plus kids cannot destroy as easily.
  • Universal Design is inherently multigenerational. UD is easiest and convenient for people of all ages and abilities, therefore multi-gen.
  • UD is kid-friendly, not only for “aging-in-place”. In Brazil, Universal Design is preferred by their younger population.
  • Among solutions for creating zero step entry: via garage, gently sloped earthen ramp or inset rim atop basement wall.
  • Real estate investors should adopt UD to make their props convenient, efficient and more marketable to a larger pool of buyers or tenants.
  • Socially sustainable housing starts with you sustaining yourself by being able to stay in your home no matter what.

If you’d rather learn everything in one place and/or assess your property inside and out, don’t forget to visit the Lifetime Home Survey, which we update quarterly.

 

Lifetime Home Survey UPDATED

Todd Hawkins

 

Jan 19 |09:04

 

Recycle your house into a Lifetime Home

This is the first revision of the LTHS since I posted the original in October. (Click “What is a Lifetime Home?” if you have no idea what I’m talking about.)

Changes include:

  • new products we’ve discovered and/or are now using
  • replacing any mention of fluorescent with LED lighting
  • multiple embedded hyperlinks to source material, additional information or manufacturers/vendors

There are numerous active links (anything underlined blue, all dot-coms as well as the green title of the document) to make the surveys convenient and save you time Googling. Click the underlined text and you’ll be taken to that web site. If you rest your mouse pointer over blue underlined words, you should see the web address to which you’ll be re-directed when you click those words. Email me and I’ll forward as raw PDF attachments if it’s not working.

Remember, because I’ve added and deleted since the original, the line items have changed. Please reference the version date at the top and specific line item if you have a question so we’re on the same page.

Click this link or see the Lifetime Home Survey tabs on the home page of this blog or main site to download the mini- and full version PDFs.

Questions or comments?

 

Our Resolution is a Revolution

Todd Hawkins

 

Dec 29 |09:34
As unlikely as it seems, housing is beginning a renaissance because of the Great Recession and blow up of the housing market. Companies are innovating all aspects of design, construction and product manufacture, trying to stand out, thrive or simply survive.

 

BuilderFish’s mission is teaching and helping people improve their houses into Lifetime Homes, that your house should seamlessly adapt to you as life progresses and changes.

 

What we do can be applied to any style of house in any area of the country whether building new or retrofitting, and includes proactive attention to every detail from the door knobs to home automation. There’s a new dawn for all of it, and your home should include if you want to live comfortably and conveniently no matter what happens to you and your family (even pets!).

 

Our residential housing stock is old, nearly obsolete with a median year built of 1974, and there’s a glut of beat up foreclosures (shadow inventory of well over a million units) not yet on the market. While some perceive housing is newer following our recent construction boom, the demographic fact is most of our nation’s houses were built
in the decades immediately following WWII. So the picture below is typical of the vast majority of our homes. Imagine inside the lay-out, user friendliness and efficiency of that house.

The good news, a bulldozer isn’t the cure. What’s required is modernization, improved air sealing/quality, water proofing, energy efficient systems and interior redesign accentuating ease. We describe as “custom new within old walls” emphasizing BOTH energy and personal effort efficiency. “Green” building gets all the attention but accessibility and easiness are just as important and apply to every area of the property including the yard.

 

As we head into 2012, think about your home and what you could do to make it livable for a lifetime, or where you plan to go if you don’t.
 

Erasing Steps

Todd Hawkins

 

Dec 14 |15:40
Ud_lot_prep_sloping

 

How do you eliminate exterior steps to an entrance? Shortest answer assuming new construction, site work in combination with moving the house up or down. For retrofits, you’re limited mostly to moving dirt or finding an alternative entrance (like through a garage, carport, etc).

 

The lay of the land determines your options and, in either case, you simply need to plan. If you’re dealing with more than a three foot rise, then it’s going to be tough but not necessarily impossible.

 

Otherwise, you grade for a gentle slope to the door, which might include a switch-back and/or retaining wall (think pavers for landscaping), not less than a 1:20 ratio (i.e. maximum slope of 1 inch rise per 20 inches) over the pathway, known as a “walking ramp” or earth berm because it doesn’t require railing or curbs. (The slope of literal ramps shouldn’t be less than a 1:12 ratio.) But higher the ratio the better assuming the lot isn’t ideally flat.

 

Sometimes it’s instructive to describe what’s typically done and visualize the opposite. So let’s pretend a house built atop a full basement. Typically the builder digs a hole, pours a basement, plunks the floor joists atop the basement walls, constructs the house and builds steps up to the front door.

 

Inset_rim_for_floor_joists

 

Same scenario except plan for a zero step and flush threshold entry, we gently grade, flatter the better, to the door. One method of “lowering the house” is using an inset rim atop the foundation walls, which only amounts to pouring an extra course of concrete, and placing the floor joists WITHIN the basement walls atop the inset rim.

 

Finally, every situation has its own problems to solve but we’re not talking rocket science. Simply slapping up steps everywhere is lazy design and construction and can be avoided in support of maximum convenience and safety if the designer and contractor merely pull on their thinking caps.