Accessible bathrooms on Long Island

New York State's Access to Home program pays for accessibility modifications, such as ramps, lifts, handrails, doorway widening and roll-in showers, in the primary homes of low- and moderate-income people with disabilities, generally with household income at or below 80 percent of area median income.¹³ Homeowners can't apply to the state directly for Access to Home; the money flows through municipalities and nonprofits selected as local program administrators.¹³ Ask the county aging office which Long Island groups currently hold that money.

The state Office for the Aging lists the Nassau County Department of Human Services Office for the Aging, in Uniondale, as the agency serving older residents of Nassau County.¹⁴ The Suffolk County Office for the Aging is the county's designated Area Agency on Aging and runs federal, state and county programs for residents 60 and older.¹⁵ Either office is the place to start if you're not sure what you qualify for.

Suffolk's town senior citizen divisions run a residential repair program in which senior craftsmen do small maintenance and repair jobs for frail older residents, who pay only for materials; bigger rehabilitation needs go to the town's community development office.¹⁵ That covers small jobs such as a grab bar or railing; a new shower is a remodel. For a veteran, the VA's grant can add to these. 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.¹⁶

More than one in four adults 65 and older fall each year.¹⁷ 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.⁷ Hall-bath doors in postwar houses are often narrower, and widening one means reframing the opening, which is a building permit job.

In a Cape, the first-floor half bath often sits beside a closet or a small bedroom. Adding a shower there may serve better than rebuilding the upstairs bath and adding a stair lift. NAHB's Certified Aging-in-Place Specialist (CAPS) credential trains remodelers in home modifications for aging in place.¹⁸

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.⁷ Ask for blocking behind every wall where a bar could go later, since adding it after the tile is up means cutting tile. 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.¹⁹

A curbless shower means lowering the floor to the drain, and in a postwar bath that floor is often a thick mortar bed. Taking it out exposes the supply and drain pipes. 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.²⁰

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.²¹ Have older floor tile tested before it is broken up. 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.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 Long Island area. The layout, fixtures and price are worked out between you and that company.

We're paid by that company for the call, so it costs you nothing, and nobody from our side calls or texts you later. How we make money

Check the company's county license before you sign. Nassau County's Office of Consumer Affairs licenses home improvement contractors, and its daily-updated lookup shows each license's status and what work the contractor's insurance does and doesn't cover.¹² Suffolk County's License and Complaint Violation Look Up searches county license records, including home improvement, master plumbing and master electrical licenses, by license number, name, business name, phone or address, along with complaint and violation information.²³ Check a New York license

Every New York home improvement contract, and every amendment, must be in writing and signed by all parties, and must give the contractor's name, address, phone number and license number if one applies, the approximate start and substantial completion dates, and a description of the work and materials, including make and model, with the agreed price.²⁴ If a grant program is paying part of the bill, make sure its list of work and the contract match line for line.