bathroom

Upgrades to Prevent Accidents in the Bathroom

Bathrooms are one of the most unique rooms in the house, but when it comes to health and safety at home, that’s not always a good thing. An abundance of hard tiles, smooth porcelain, and sleek metal, combined with a lot of water, creates an environment where it’s very easy to slip and fall.

Nobody is exempt from the dangers of a bathroom environment, people of all ages injure themselves in the bathroom every year, a figure that is in the hundreds of thousands. A bathroom can be very dangerous, but it doesn’t have to be!

There are many small ways that you can upgrade your bathroom to make it safer, more practical, and better-looking – none of which have to break the bank. Here are ten excellent ways to lower the risk of slipping in the bathroom, whilst still keeping the beauty of your bathroom intact:

Tip One: Buy A Quality Bath Mat

Buying a bath mat is one of the least expensive and simplest investments that you can make to upgrade your bathroom. The small purchase can make getting in and out of the shower or bath much safer, and make sure that your feet are dry before you step onto your bathroom tiles or laminate flooring. Most types of bath mats will suffice, as long as the mat doesn’t slide around on the floor of the bathroom.

Tip Two: Invest in Shower Mats and Bath Tub Mats

While it’s understandable that you may not want your bathroom to become ‘the room of many mats’, twinning your bath mat with a non-slip mat inside your shower or bath tub is a wise investment.

It can get very slippery inside baths and showers, and a non-slip mat will help to make sure that you can stand and move around a lot safer. Slip resistant bath mats will also making getting out of the bath much easier.

Tip Three: Upgrade to Non-Slip Flooring

A step above a mat outside your shower or bath is to upgrade to non-slip flooring. Bathroom flooring is often made from materials that are easy to clean, to lower home maintenance, and materials that are resistant to water damage. Changing to a specialist non-slip material will still mean that your bathroom is easy to clean and resistant to water damage, but the surface will be a lot safer.

Tip Four: Install Bars in Your Bathroom

It’s often not the actual slip that causes an injury but hitting the hard bathroom floor. Grab bars or hand grips are an incredibly effective way to prevent most types of slipping accidents in the bathroom.

Bars can be installed anywhere in a bathroom, but they can be most effective in places around the bath or shower and around the toilet, where slipping is very common. There are many design styles to choose from for an aesthetically pleasing bar, so you don’t need to alter your bathroom design too drastically.

Tip Five: Keep Water Contained with Shower Curtains

Shower curtains are more than just a design feature, they’re very important for keeping water inside the bath tub and shower where it’s less likely to cause you to slip and fall. Investing in a quality shower curtain will help to prevent those dangerous little puddles forming just outside the tub that can very easily be slipped on.

Tip Six: Make Sure Your Bathroom Has Good Lighting

Being able to see the dangers in your bathroom is one of the best preventive measures that you can take to avoiding them. Good bathroom lighting, that lights up every corner of your bathroom, will help to make sure that you don’t miss any puddles of water or slippery spots on the floor.

Good natural lighting and night lights can be just as helpful as the main artificial lighting, so it’s worth making sure that your bathroom windows are unobstructed and even think about investing in a small bathroom night light.

Tip Seven: Install a Chair in Your Shower

A shower seat is a bigger investment than a bath mat, but it’s an essential if you or one of your family members has trouble standing for prolonged periods in the shower. Being able to sit in the shower can prevent a lot of accidents and make showering easier for many people.

There are different styles of shower seat available, including ones that easily fold up, so the shower can still be used as a standing shower for other members of the family.

Tip Eight: Refinish Your Bath Tub

An alternative to a mat inside your bath is to refinish the bottom of the bath tub. There are a range of textured agents available that transform the bottom of the bath tub into a textured surface. These can make the tub surface much easier to grip without having to add a separate mat to the tub.

Tip Nine: Invest in A Taller Toilet

A taller toilet is a brilliant investment for adult-only homes where there is unlikely to be a child that needs to use the toilet. Taller toilets are easier to use and can lower the risk of falling around the toilet area when sitting down or standing up.

Many general plumbing services in the Westmont, IL area cover the installation of standard and taller toilets, so you shouldn’t have any problem getting one installed in your home.

Tip Ten: Keep Your Bathroom Plumbing Maintained

There is a lot that you can add to your bathroom to make it a safer environment, but there’s also a lot going on behind the scenes that needs to be considered when trying to make sure that your bathroom is as safe as possible.

All that plumbing for your shower, bath, sink, and toilet should be regularly maintained as part of your standard home maintenance. Good plumbing home maintenance will help to prevent leaks that can lead to slippery surfaces and pools of water that may go unnoticed.

Arranging for a Chicago plumber who provides general plumbing services in your area to inspect your plumbing after any installation, or every now and again, will give you a peace of mind about the general safety of your bathroom.

You don’t need to completely overhaul your bathroom to make it a safe part of your home. Just taking on board a handful of the top tips here and getting your plumbing regularly checked, will improve your bathroom and make it safer for the whole family to use every day.