Accessible bathrooms in Dallas–Fort Worth

22%⁷ of Dallas County homes went up in the 1950s and 1960s, mostly single-story houses with one hall bath. That helps: nobody has to climb stairs to reach it. The usual obstacles are a narrow door off the hall and a tub wedged between two walls.

A curbless shower on a slab is a bigger job than it sounds. Slab-on-ground foundations became common in the early 1950s, and light houses on slabs over expansive soil are more exposed to damage when the soil's moisture changes.¹² The floor has to be cut and recessed so water runs to the drain without a lip, and the drain line under the slab may need to move. Expansive clay soils swell when they take on water and shrink as they dry, and those cycles can crack foundations and walls, jam doors and tilt floors.¹² Settle any foundation movement first, or a pitched shower floor can crack.

If the walls are open anyway, solid blocking behind the tile for future grab bars costs little now and saves tearing tile out later.

More than one in four adults 65 and older fall each year.¹³ The CDC says falling once doubles an older adult's chances of falling again.¹³ The CDC's home fall-prevention checklist recommends grab bars in and beside the tub and next to the toilet, and a non-slip surface on tub and shower floors.¹⁴

The National Institute on Aging suggests non-skid surfaces wherever a floor can get wet and a light left on in the bathroom at night.¹⁵ 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.¹⁵ Bring what the therapist recommends to the first meeting: the transfer side, the seat height that works, and whether a walker or a chair has to turn around in the room. That shapes the layout more than any fixture catalog. NAHB's Certified Aging-in-Place Specialist (CAPS) credential trains remodelers in home modifications for aging in place.¹⁶

Dallas's Home Improvement and Preservation Program, run by Volunteers of America Texas, includes a Major-Systems Repair Program that can fix heating and cooling, electrical, plumbing and structural problems, including structural work to make a home accessible to a person with a disability, as an interest-free forgivable loan.¹⁷ The most that loan can reach is $24,000¹⁷. To qualify for Dallas's HIPP, a household must earn no more than 80 percent of area median income, own and live in the home inside Dallas city limits, have owned it for at least six months with clear title, and be current on property taxes and the mortgage.¹⁷ The City of Dallas says its Home Improvement and Preservation Program is not accepting applications at this time.¹⁸

Across the county line, help runs through the aging network. The Area Agency on Aging of Tarrant County, part of United Way of Tarrant County, says it can provide minor home modifications, small medical equipment or in-home help so older adults and people with disabilities can live at home, and that its services cost nothing to those who need them.¹⁹ Texas's 28 area agencies on aging serve people 60 and older with services that include care coordination, caregiver support and in-home support, and the AAA toll-free line, 1-800-252-9240, connects callers with their local office.²⁰ Fort Worth's own repair help is aimed elsewhere: Fort Worth's Priority Repair Program fixes urgent failures such as broken sewer, water or gas lines, unsafe water heaters and heating, then electrical, roof, air conditioning and rotted subfloor problems, for owner-occupied homes in the city with household income no higher than 60 percent of area median income; it does not list accessibility work.²¹

Texas's Amy Young Barrier Removal Program gives one-time grants of up to $22,500 for accessibility modifications and hazard removal in homes of households that include a person with a disability and earn no more than 80 percent of area median family income; renters and homeowners both qualify, and applications go through local nonprofit and government administrators.²² Texas's Amy Young Barrier Removal Program can pay for handrails and ramps, wider doors, lower counters and cabinets, and accessible showers, toilets and sinks, and at least 75 percent of each grant must go to removing barriers.²³ Veterans have a separate route. 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.²⁴ Whichever program you try, ask whether it has to approve the contractor and the scope before work starts.

The number on this page reaches, on a recorded line, one independent company that handles accessible bathroom remodels in the Dallas–Fort Worth area. You explain who will use the room and what has to change, and settle the price with them.

That company pays us for the call. It costs you nothing, and we don't contact you by phone or text later. How we make money

Before a deposit, look up the licensed trades on the job yourself. In Texas, no one may do plumbing without the license, registration or endorsement the plumbing law requires, and license holders must carry the license with them while they work.²⁵ The Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners' public license search looks up plumbers by name, by name and license type, by license number, or by city or county.²⁶ TDLR's License Data Search lists active licenses only and can be searched by license type, license number, name or business name, city, county or ZIP code.²⁷ Check a Texas license