Aluminum wheelchair ramps offer a quick & easy way to make a home accessible. These types of ramps can be used and installed year-round, with proper care & maintenance during winter weather months. If you’re in need of wheelchair ramp, there’s no need to wait for spring to have one installed!
Key Takeaways:
Clear snow & ice - Keep the ramping, platform, and nearby pathways clear of snow and ice to ensure safe use of the ramp
Use materials safe for aluminum - Use equipment (i.e. plastic shovel rather than metal) and salt that is safe to use on aluminum surfaces to prevent any damage to your ramp
Winter ramp installations are possible as aluminum wheelchair ramps can be safely installed year-round and are designed to resist rust an corrosion, which is perfect for areas with harsh winters.
“It’s the most wonderful time of the year!” The holiday season is officially here, bringing lots of joy and cheer to families and friends gathering for holiday events and parties
If you are a veteran, we would first like to say thank you for your service. You put your life on the line to protect our freedom and keep us safe in our home country.
Creating an accessible home and outdoor space is vital to ensure you, your family, and your friends can enjoy it for years to come. Thanks to the Americans with Disabilities Act, there are now more resources than ever for modifications to make living in comfort accessible for everyone.
Lifeway Mobility was recently featured on WGN's Spotlight Chicago! Hosted by Sarah Jindra and Ji Suk Yi, Spotlight Chicago is a show that highlights local individuals and organizations making a difference in the community and upcoming events.
As we age, our home may not be as easy to navigate as it was years ago. Getting up and down a set of stairs may be a chore because of decline in mobility or weaker muscles. The risk of slipping and falling in the bathroom may be much higher, especially if there are no grab bars in the bathtub/shower, or near the toilet.
An option for older adults that are having a difficult time getting around at home is a senior/assisted living facility. However, these types of facilities do not offer the familiarity and comfort that a home does. A home is full of memories from holidays and gatherings with family and lifelong friends.
A basic aluminum modular wheelchair ramp system typically consists of a platform(s), ramping and graspable handrails. However, depending on the mobility needs of the person in need of the wheelchair ramp, and home setting, there may be upgrade options that need to be considered to ensure safe easy access for everyone.
Lifeway Mobility was featured on HouseSmarts Radio with Lou Manfredini via WGN Radio Chicago 720! HouseSmarts is a well-known home improvement and lifestyle show that provides homeowners with tips on home renovation and repairs.
Lou and his team were interested in speaking to an expert about aging-in-place and making homes more accessible, and selected Lifeway Mobility as the guest to interview.
Mesa, AZ – Lifeway Mobility, a team of trusted home access professionals, is pleased to announce it is expanding its footprint into Arizona. Our team is excited to extend its expertise, and will offer stair lifts, wheelchair ramps & lifts, home elevators, and a variety of transfer aid and bathroom safety solutions to meet the mobility needs of those living in the Phoenix, AZ Metro area.
You don't need to use your legs to develop a green thumb. With a few accommodations and modifications, you can do anything on four wheels that others do on two feet. This includes gardening, a therapeutic and stress-relieving hobby. With a few design changes, gardening from a wheelchair can be a fruitful endeavor.
One common way to make a home accessible for those with disabilities or limited mobility is by overcoming the steps at the garage entrance. Steps are an accessibility barrier that are typically made of concrete or wood, and railings are not always installed. The construction of the stairs may also be low-quality in some cases, which can pose injury risks from slips and falls. Here are the top 5 solutions to help make a home’s garage safe and accessible.
Our home accessibility experts are invited into our client’s homes and into our local communities to evaluate for home accessibility solutions, such as stair lifts or wheelchair ramps or lifts. During our evaluations, we often encounter modifications that were done by another company or DIYs that do not meet ADA requirements, or are unsafe.
People diagnosed with cancer often require additional safety precautions to ensure that any health-related problems do not occur. Day-to-day activities that can be taken for granted will become harder. Simple things like cooking, cleaning, and even walking up the stairs may become strenuous, and even dangerous.
Zero step entry or wheelchair ramps can make your home or building accessible and be a beautiful addition. However, there are many common mistakes and costly errors that you can prevent by continuing to read this resource.
Universal Design states that the entrance should work for everyone, however what modifications are needed to include everyone. Here are the top 7 tips:
1. Who are the Users? Are They Using Any Assistive Devices to Enter the House?
The difference between a wheelchair, scooter, walker, stroller, rolling luggage is subtle. They all have wheels, but the mobility needs of the user can widely vary. While ADA suggests a maximum slope of 1 inch of rise for every foot of ramp, this is the steepest recommended and would not be suitable for someone using a walker with limited strength. The ADA specifically states, “The least possible slope shall be used for any wheelchair ramp.” Most people automatically focus on standards like this and seek to meet the minimum standard. But, users may need a wheelchair ramp to exceed the standards and be easier to go up or down. Surprisingly, more falls happen on the way down the ramp, because momentum and gravity are stronger forces. And because of the increased speed of a fall, there is more force for an injury.
Know your users, and exceed their need for your best ramp design. This is why Lifeway Mobility's experts always take the time to understand the needs of the customer any others living at the home before taking measurements and recommending a ramp layout.
2. Make the Pathway Fit the House
In every design, we start with the door usually in the garage or in the front of the house, and end with where the user wants to enter the ramp. This is usually where we get out of a vehicle/transportation, like a driveway, garage, parking lot. The best tip to make your ramp fit the house is to identify where the ramp should start and stop that has the least amount of vertical height difference. Also, you need to look at the house and design along the house vs. out away from the house. This will gain you a visual benefit, ramps looks better if they blend into the structure of the building, but also a design benefit.
Wheelchair ramps are easier to use when they follow the design of the home. However, watch for the home with short walls and multiple corners. Because a ramp should have a 5 foot level platform at the top of the ramp and every time you turn, a ramp will get longer with more turns and should be designed to be a straight as possible and fit the home. Also, you want to use a type of ramp and materials to fit the home, as you will compliment the look of your ramp instead of stand out.
3. What Type of Wheelchair Ramp Is Needed? Is the Need Temporary, Portable or Permanent?
There are 3 major types of wheelchair ramps and ramp materials:
Aluminum
Concrete
Wood
They each have their advantages, but you first must know how long the ramp is needed. We have seen a wood ramp only used for a year because the owner moved homes and unfortunately, the wood ramp was worthless for the new home. Aluminum wheelchair ramps have several advantages because there are portable options, as well as modular ones that can be customized and even reconfigured to be moved or reused, and it doesn’t require any maintenance like concrete/brick and wood. Wood also requires much more maintenance than concrete.
4. What is the Best Surface for Your Ramp?
The biggest mistake that we see here is to focus on what it look like vs a surface that prevents slips and falls with a good grip. While trex or composite wood is more attractive and offers less maintenance, it can be the most slippery surface, especially if you run your board down the ramp like a bowling alley. Concrete gives a good surface and grip, but ice and snow can build up and be dangerous.
Again, the aluminum ramps can excel here as they offer either a black friction surface like sand paper, or a extruded edges every quarter inch that looks like grooves in the surface. This will be a much better surface in rain and snow. We cannot forget that the ramp should look beautiful and blend into the home, so many of the aluminum ramps now come in colors for the discerning home owner.
5. Little Things Matter
The Threshold of your ramp at the bottom is crucial for ease of use and safety. Also, where the ramp meets the threshold of the door into the house is just as important. The two pictures below show 1-2 inch bumps as you enter and exit the ramps in these two areas. These can be avoided by working with a home accessibility expert.
A 3/4 in bump is all the is need to bring a walker or wheelchair to a complete stop, like slamming on your brakes in your vehicle. The difference is that when you slam on your brakes, you know you will violently stop. Using a ramp and hitting a small bump can cause you to fall down or out of your chair, you can hit the door frame as you enter or exit the house, or possible you cannot get over the bump and cannot use the ramp at all. The WORST possibility is that you have to ask for help and lose the independence that a ramps is SUPPOSED to PROVIDE.
6. Type of Handrails
The Handrail of a ramp is the most intimate part of the ramp because it is what you touch or glide your hand along. A safe smooth surface for your hand is just as important for your feet or mobility device. ADA requires a smooth, uninterrupted handrail that you can wrap your fingers around
7. Maintenance
When choosing a wheelchair ramp for your home, it's importance to consider maintenance and how that might impact the long-term cost of the ramp. Unfortunately, the least expensive ramps are wood and many people choose plywood, but it will deteriorate within 2-3 years. Wood wheelchair ramps require the most maintenance because sun, rain, snow, heat, and cold all cause the wood to expand and contract. Staining or painting is required every 2-3 years.
Concrete or brick ramps require sealing to avoid cracking, and because they are so heavy, they can sink or shift, causing the ramp to be unusable. Steel Handrails may require painting. This can add 10-25% of costs to the price of a ramp if you include the needed future maintenance.
Aluminum wheelchair ramps may be a bit more expensive up front, but no maintenance is required, making it the most cost-advantageous of the three material types over the long haul.
Contact us to learn more about universal design when it comes to wheelchair ramps, or to schedule your FREE ramp consultation!
We get several inquiries from people asking what they should do with their used medical equipment when they no longer need it. In this post, we will share some suggestions and options on what to do with your used medical equipment.
If you have an accessibility solution, such as a stair lift or aluminum wheelchair ramp that you'd like to ret rid of, one of our locations at Lifeway Mobility may be interested in purchasing it, depending on the year and condition of the equipment.
If you are looking to purchase used stair lift or used wheelchair ramp, please contact us to learn more or set up a free consultation.
Option 1: Donate Your Used Medical Equipment to a Charitable Organization
Donating your gently used medical equipment is a great option. With a donation, you won’t receive any money back for your device, but you will get a receipt that can be used for tax deductions. Donations allow you to collect a receipt for the current value of the equipment, which can often times be more than you would get by doing a private sale. And, perhaps the most rewarding part of donating your equipment is that it will go to help another family in need.
Many of the organizations below have “equipment closets” that they loan from to help other families for both short and long-term assistance. For example, someone with ALS will have ongoing and changing needs. They might use a manual wheelchair at first, but eventually need a power wheelchair; once they reach the end-stages of the disease, they will not need a wheelchair at all.
ALS Foundation
Assistance League (Hospital Lending Equipment)
Good Health Will
Home Builder’s Foundation
Kids Mobility Network
Local Lending Closets
MS Society
Project Cure
Vietnam Veterans of America
Option 2: Resell Your Used Medical Equipment
If you bought your equipment from elsewhere or have other types of durable medical equipment, your best bet at recouping some of the expenses is to sell it online. Most companies similar buy back policies on this type of equipment as there can be a high level of liability with re-selling used medical equipment due to the health and safety risks involved. For this reason, you are encouraged to give careful consideration when buying certain types of used medical equipment, especially from a private seller.
Craigslist
Facebook Marketplace
NextDoor
Cleveland, OH – Lifeway Mobility, a leading provider of accessibility solutions, is pleased to announce the opening of a new location in the Cleveland metropolitan area. Lifeway will offer stair lifts, wheelchair ramps & lifts, home elevators and a variety of transfer aid & bath safety solutions to those living in greater Cleveland and surrounding areas in Ohio, including Akron, Canton, & Youngstown.
San Diego, CA– Lifeway Mobility, a team of trusted home access professionals, is pleased to announce it is expanding its coverage area in southern CA into San Diego. Lifeway will now offer stair lifts, wheelchair ramps, and a variety of basic transfer aid solutions to those living in San Diego County.
Kansas City, MO - Lifeway Mobility (“Lifeway”) is pleased to announce it has acquired Health & Comfort Equipment Service, LLC in Kansas City, MO. Health & Comfort has over 30 years of experience in the home accessibility industry in the KC Metro Area and greater Topeka, KS, providing stair lifts, wheelchair ramps, and other accessibility solutions. This new partnership allows Lifeway Mobility to further expand its service offerings throughout Kansas and provide services in the state of Missouri.
Raleigh, NC– Lifeway Mobility, a team of trusted home access professionals, is pleased to announce it is expanding its coverage area in the state of North Carolina. Lifeway will now offer stair lifts, wheelchair ramps, and a variety of basic transfer aid solutions to those living in Greensboro, Raleigh, Durham, Fayetteville, Wilmington, and the surrounding areas in eastern North Carolina
Hartford, CT - Lifeway Mobility, Inc. (“Lifeway”) is pleased to announce that it has acquired Accessible Systems, Inc. (“ASI”), a leading provider of home safety and accessibility solutions for people with limited mobility in the Rocky Mountain and southwest regions for over 22 years.
Whether you have recently become disabled or have been living with a disability your whole life, you have likely needed to make modifications to your home to support an independent lifestyle. Home modifications can make parts of your home more accessible.
Virtual CEU* Event: Modifications for Home AccessibilityDate & Time: TBD
This webinar will cover the basics of modifications for home accessibility and answer questions including:
Lifeway Mobility Chicago, a local Bruno Diamond stair lift dealer, has a showroom equipped with six fully operational stair lifts. Visiting a stair lift showroom can be very helpful for:
St. Cloud, MN– Lifeway Mobility, a leading provider of accessibility solutions that helps those with limited mobility stay safe and independent at home, is pleased to announce it is further expanding its footprint in central Minnesota. Lifeway will now offer stair lifts, wheelchair ramps, and a variety of basic transfer aid solutions to those living in St. Cloud, Minnesota, and the surrounding areas.
