Adapting a home for easier, safer access in Ireland

The bathroom comes first for many households. Replacing a bath with a level-access shower or a wet room removes the step over the bath edge, and the floor is laid to a fall so water drains away. Grab rails, a fixed shower seat, a raised or comfort-height toilet and lever taps can be part of the same job.

Getting around the house often means widening doorways, removing thresholds and changing door handles and light switches to more usable positions. Getting in and out may need a ramp, a level path, a wider front door or handrails on external steps. Larger adaptations include a downstairs bedroom or bathroom, sometimes as an extension, and lifts between floors.

Age-friendly changes are often smaller: better lighting on stairs, a second banister, rails by the front door, easier taps, or moving a washing machine up to a comfortable height. Many are cheap compared with the difference they make.

Once the recommendations are clear, the builder turns them into drawings and a specification.

• which adaptations are planned: bathroom, doors, thresholds, ramp, rails, extension
• whether an occupational therapist has visited and made recommendations
• whether you own the home, rent it, or are a landlord adapting it for a tenant
• house or flat, and whether the building is listed
• whether someone needs to be able to keep using the bathroom during the work

Whether the work needs planning permission depends on what is built and where. Many small works on a house are exempted development within set limits, but that exemption does not apply everywhere, for example to protected structures. Ask your county or city council's planning office before you commit if you are unsure.

Electrical work in homes is carried out by Registered Electrical Contractors, and gas work by Registered Gas Installers; ask to see the registration before work starts. Check whether the quote includes VAT, which Revenue charges at different rates depending on the goods and services involved.

Source: revenue.ie

Housing Adaptation Grant for People with a Disability (Local authorities (County/City Councils)): Local authority grant for adaptations such as ramps, grab rails, accessible showers, stairlifts or through-floor lifts, hoists and extensions for a disabled person. The maximum is €40,000 or the full approved costs, depending on household income; no grant above €75,000 household income.

Mobility Aids Grant (Local authorities (County/City Councils)): Local authority grant for older and/or disabled people with mobility problems, e.g. grab rails, a ramp, an accessible shower or a stairlift, covering up to the full cost to a maximum of €8,000; household income must not exceed €37,500.

Only the scheme operator decides whether you qualify. For SEAI grants, approval must usually be in place before work starts, so agree the timing with the business before you sign.

Source: assets.gov.ie

You confirm your mobile number with a text code and your email address with a link. We then show the request to businesses in your area, without your name or contact details. Only one business can take it on; it pays Offrano for the request, and it costs you nothing.

Before that business sees your details, we email you its name, address and phone number. We check only that it is a registered business, for example through its Companies Registration Office entry or VAT number, not the quality of its work. We cannot promise that a business will respond; if nobody takes the request within 21 days, we withdraw it. Offrano is not a party to any contract for the work.