CASE STUDY

Brighton Wheelchair Friendly Extension

My husband suffered life changing injuries due to an accident and is now severely disabled and is a wheelchair user.

During more than 4 years in recovery in hospitals and nursing homes, his greatest wish was to return home so that we could be together again and have as ‘normal’ a life as possible.

The problem

Our home was built in 1872. It had no wheelchair access, insufficient ground floor living space for our new circumstances and no ground floor bathroom. My husband’s return home wasn’t possible without major changes to our property and he didn’t wish to move house. He wanted his ‘normal’ house.

We did have an original outbuilding at the end of our garden and enough land in between the outbuilding and the main house to create an extension. Linking the two buildings would allow more than adequate living accommodation. The extension (with a fully glazed frontage allowing for a full view of the garden) would create almost 18 square metres of additional living space. The outbuilding (on a lower ground level to the main house) would become a ground floor bathroom. As it was, the outbuilding had electricity but no water and no drainage. A discrete ‘pocket’ sliding door would allow access from the extension to the ground floor bathroom.

We needed wheelchair access from the extension into our garden and to our existing double gates leading from our garden to the outside world. A ramped terracing system would be a solution, preserving much of our garden and allowing for outdoor seating areas. We could create social spaces both inside our home and in our garden.

Proposing a solution

Adept Sussex were by far the most understanding building company to respond when the work, (specified by a specialist surveying and building design company) went out to tender. Fionn and Joe (Adept Sussex) are good people. They have a caring and personal professional approach. They are warm and kind and were keen and able to solve all of the challenges ahead of them. Their teams of workers are professional, self motivated and efficient. They are also very polite and trustworthy. Communication was good throughout and any niggles I had were sorted out quickly and amicably. Our neighbours commented on how different they are to the ‘usual’ builders.

Adept Sussex have great experience in adaptations for the less able. They deliver high quality building work at a fair price. Despite the difficult site, our extension and the exterior alterations to our outbuilding blend seamlessly with the main house. We have a magnificent ramped wheelchair runway, complete with a handrail system worthy of an ocean liner. The work is a great success both inside and out. Everything works so well for us. I am an exacting and prescriptive client and yet our ‘new’ home is exactly as I envisaged and hoped it to be.

The result

My husband is home. We are together at last and living in style in a home which gives few clues to its ‘disabled’ purpose. Life is as ‘normal’ as it can possibly be. As he came in through the garden for the first time, my husband said, ‘It’s very beautiful’. Mission accomplished!

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