Ramp for Parent's House

November 18, 2024 12:48 PM

My parent's are aging in place in their home. We turned a back room into their bedroom so that they can live on one floor. There is a door in the bedroom that opens onto a backyard deck. Looking for ideas on having a ramp built

Here are photos of the house. There are stairs in the front, and one step from walkway to driveway. The deck also has a few stairs. We need to make a ramp so that a walker and wheelchair can be used. I'm thinking that the cheapest option would be a ramp on the side of the house to the deck, and it would be unobtrusive. Any ideas, suggestions? Would wood be best or is there something else that's better/cheaper?

posted by Sophont to Home & Garden (15 answers total)

Where do you want the ramp to go to at ground level? It seems like you'd want to lead to a hard surface (like the driveway), not dirt.
posted by adamrice at 12:56 PM on November 18 [1 favorite]

Having their bedroom be the main entrance is probably not desirable, but maybe it is the only workable option to run the ramp along the side of the house and then end by that bag of leaves, as you propose. Ramps are usually 1:12, so you need about 24' of ramp, which seems about right given you could start further out on the deck if needed. Depending on local codes, you might be able to go steeper, which is still usable for a fit person to push someone or use an electric wheelchair, but not great for a walker user or a self-propelled wheelchair user.

Ideally you'd be able to do something out the front door, but that looks challenging with the existing slope towards the driveway. You might be able to make something work that runs towards the driveway along the front of the house and then turns to descend along the side of the driveway.

Is this in a snowy climate? Keeping the ramp clear of snow is a significant consideration; the easier you can make that, the better.

Wood is the traditional material. Smaller portable aluminum ramps are fairly cheap, but they won't be long enough for your application unless you're willing to tolerate a steep incline. Longer aluminum ramps, the kind with intermediate supports, are an option too, but probably similar in price to wood and they look less like part of the house.
posted by ssg at 1:19 PM on November 18

A neighbor has a similar house and they have a wide ramp from the front door of the house extending all the way out to the front sidewalk to make it easier for them to get the wheelchair from the parked car in the front directly onto the ramp.

The ramp needs to have a gradual incline so there will be a long amount of space needed for the required slope. If you go through the back deck, you would most likely have to take down part of the fence. For any option, there would be regular maintenance of sweeping leaves and snow removal.
posted by ichimunki at 2:02 PM on November 18

Also, some companies have precast modular ramp systems that look nice such as these. Not sure about the price point but it can't hurt to ask.
posted by ichimunki at 2:05 PM on November 18

What's the garage like? Looks like maybe there's a staircase into the house? Maybe put an elevator in there? Or beside the front porch? Even a DIY one?

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/1vwdgfRWCrI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgUaGCsHILk
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=DIY+home+elevator
posted by at at 2:09 PM on November 18

Measure the Width of the doorways. They vary in homes from door to door. This may make the decision for you.
posted by beccaj at 2:19 PM on November 18 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Ramps are usually 1:12
1:12 is the legally steepest ramp allowed in most jurisdiction globally, but may as well be a cliff for many whheelchair users. I design a lot of ramp systems and always aim for 1:20 max. steepness for short routes.

From pics I think 1:20 is possible. Def want 1:20 for a walker imo.

cheaper, what you do not want is for the surface to flex too much as it's disconcerting, and leads to accidents esp. when frozen/wet.

A recent blogpost I did for potental clients - Design Ability, there's some useful ideas in there, and prompts to asking the right questions.

Sometime scaffolding is a good low cost approach to finding the best form, and a reputable scaffolder should be able to do this. Then make the ramp from that.
posted by unearthed at 2:24 PM on November 18 [10 favorites]

You have room for a switchback and you could put a small flat space at the turn so people can rest if they need to. In any case it would keep the ramp snug up against the house.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 2:26 PM on November 18 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Want the ramp to go to the driveway. Garage does not have entry to house, can't be added. Suburb of NYC so yes, snow.
posted by Sophont at 2:26 PM on November 18

Local veterans etc groups frequently have a service mandate and many of them build ramps for other veterans/low income senior as their “thing”. This might or might not be your parents. However, you might could make a donation and see if they’d consult with you on best practices/locations/materials bc it’s usually a crew of folks who know what they’re about.
posted by toodleydoodley at 3:10 PM on November 18 [2 favorites]

If you end up with a wood ramp that gets slippery in the rain, use some of this anti-skid additive to treat it (you just mix it in with paint). We tried tread tape first, which was starting to fall off within weeks and mostly gone within months. We were skeptical about the additive (you can't really see it much), but it's taken our ramp from seriously dangerous to no difference between rain and dry weather.
posted by Eyelash at 4:31 PM on November 18

It will be hard to make a ramp with a gradual enough slope at the front door. Possible, but it will cut the front yard on half and make various other access more difficult. In any case, if you want the ramp to go to the driveway, you'd have to run it along the front of the house and I think it would be too steep.

The most likely place seems to be to build a landing out from the deck and run the ramp all the way along the side of the house to the driveway (you'd have to re-locate the gate). This gives you a good incline and doesn't impede any other access. It's not ideal for the ramp to go directly into the bedroom, but you don't have many options short of creating another entrance door somewhere.

I would just build it from timber, effectively building a sloping deck along the side of the house. Obviously, a non-slip surface is needed - I suggest fibre-cement sheeting painted with a non-slip coating. Scaffolding would also work, as suggested by unearthed, with the added bonus of being easier to remove if you no longer need the ramp in future.
posted by dg at 6:59 PM on November 18

FWIW, my elderly parents just went through a similar stair-eliminating transition and ended up going with a power chair on their front steps instead. More or less the same price and it takes up basically no space. Ramps are big. Especially when someone old is trying to push someone else old uphill in a wheelchair.
posted by gottabefunky at 10:07 PM on November 18 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Looks like the deck is 16' and the house 20'-24'. And the front landing is 36" or so above the driveway? So 3' in 36-40' but you would lose a minimum of 3' to a landing at the deck and should really be 4'. If you can extend the ramp into the drive way flush to the front walk you'd gain another 6ish feet.

However you could also remove the rear stairs and have the ramp start there. That gives you another 12' maybe and puts a landing 2/3rds of the way up.

Now you are in the ballpark of unearthed's 1:20 (I agree that 1:12 is insanely steep for a wheelchair user with limited strength or mobility).

I would not put a loved one on any of the DIY lifts I saw from the YouTube search any more than I'd crawl under a car sitting on a jack. They appear to all be grossly under engineered and under spec'd for a person lift. Holy hand grenade what a poor design that Jay's Creations lift is for lifting people.
posted by Mitheral at 8:31 AM on November 19

Response by poster: Mitheral had a great idea, as a lift to the side of the stairs may be cheaper and less obtrusive than a ramp.
posted by Sophont at 9:40 AM on November 23