Accessible bathrooms in Wilmington

Delaware's Division of Services for Aging and Adults with Physical Disabilities covers the cost of certain home modifications, such as a wheelchair ramp, handrails or grab bars and widened doorways, that make it safer to get in and out, move between rooms and use the bathroom or kitchen, when no other funding is available.¹² The division's home modification support is for Delaware residents 18 or older with a permanent or long-term physical disability whose permanent home needs accessibility changes; funding is limited and given by need, and you start by calling the Delaware Aging and Disability Resource Center at 1-800-223-9074.¹²

New Castle County's Senior Home Repair Program covers repairs to a home's health, safety, security and accessibility, including minor carpentry, plumbing and electrical work, failing heaters, roofs, unsafe wiring, and accessibility changes such as grab bars or replacing a bathtub with a walk-in shower.⁷ The Senior Home Repair Program is for homeowners 62 or older who live in the home, with household income below 80 percent of the HUD area median and assets under the program limit; the home must be in New Castle County outside Wilmington and Newark and not in a flood zone.⁷

Inside the city, Wilmington runs its own lottery-based program. Wilmington's Homeowner Repair Program offers city homeowners with incomes under 100 percent of area median income up to $10,000 each for repairs that can include roofs, heating and cooling, weatherization and handicapped accessibility, with participants picked by lottery after registering through 311.¹³

A veteran may be able to add a VA grant on top. The VA's Home Improvements and Structural Alterations (HISA) benefit pays for medically necessary changes to a veteran's or servicemember's primary residence, including use of essential bathroom facilities such as roll-in showers and lowering sinks and counters.¹⁴

More than one in four adults 65 and older fall each year.¹⁵ Under the ADA standards a doorway needs a clear width of at least 32 inches, measured between the face of the door and the stop with the door open 90 degrees.¹⁶ Old rowhouse bath doors are often narrower than that, and widening one in a plaster wall means new framing and patching on both sides.

Behind the kitchen, the typical Quaker Hill row house had another room attached to the rear, used as an extra sleeping room, a pantry or a storage shed.¹⁷ That first-floor back room is often the likeliest spot for a bath with no stairs between it and a downstairs bedroom.

The ADA standards set a circular wheelchair turning space at 60 inches in diameter, and a clear floor space at 30 by 48 inches.¹⁶ In residential units covered by the ADA standards, a transfer shower may go without a seat as long as the walls are reinforced so one can be installed later.¹⁶ Ask for blocking in every wall where a bar or seat might be wanted later. If you have fallen, the NIA notes, your doctor might suggest that an occupational therapist, physical therapist or nurse visit your home to assess its safety and advise you about changes.¹⁸

In a pre-war house the bath floor may sit on a thick mortar bed over wood joists, so a level, curbless entry can mean lowering or reinforcing the framing. The EPA notes that lead can collect inside galvanized pipe and later reach drinking water, and that solder made before 1986 contained high levels of lead.¹⁹

The EPA lists vinyl floor tile, vinyl sheet backing and flooring adhesives among products that may contain asbestos, which is released mainly when the material is disturbed.²⁰ The EPA advises having an accredited asbestos professional inspect before a remodel that could disturb suspect materials, and not sanding or power-stripping suspect flooring yourself.²¹ Delaware runs its own lead renovation program: firms and workers doing renovation, repair or painting in pre-1978 housing that disturbs more than six square feet of painted surface in a room, more than twenty square feet outside, or that replaces windows or demolishes, must be certified by the Division of Public Health.²²

Calling the number on this page puts you through, on a recorded line, to one independent company that handles accessible bathroom remodels in the Wilmington area. The layout, the fixtures and the price are worked out between you and that company.

We're paid by that company for the call, so it costs you nothing, and no one from our side will call or text you later. How we make money

Look the company up yourself before you sign. Delaware's public Contractor Registry lookup lists contractors that properly registered and are considered compliant with Department of Labor laws, searchable by name, ZIP code, certification number, NAICS code or industry; a contractor that drops off the list may not have re-registered, may be under review, or may have been suspended or revoked.²³ Delaware's DELPROS License Look-Up searches licensed people by name, city, state, profession, license type or license number, shows each license's status, and lets you open disciplinary history when the Discipline column says Yes.²⁴ Check a Delaware license

Delaware's Consumer Protection Unit home improvement regulations, effective November 1, 2023, require a written contract listing all material terms, bar asking homeowners to sign incomplete contracts or calling a binding contract an estimate, require a completion date unless clearly disclosed, and bar getting a certificate of completion before the work is done; contractors must give buyers a copy of the unit's summary of the rules before the contract is signed.²⁵ If a state, county or city program is paying part of the bill, get the scope in writing so the program and the company work from the same list.