Life Time Homes

Buying a house is one of the most important purchase in our life. The reason is not that it might be the most expensive thing we have bought but because it will be home for us, for our children and maybe grandchildren. That is why nowadays many houses are designed to be flexible and accessible such that the house could adapt to the life changes.

To meet a lifetime home standards you have to follow the main 16 criteria:

1. Parking (width or widening capability)
2. Approach from parking to dwelling (distance, widths, gradients)
3. Approach to all entrances
4. Entrances
5. Communal stairs and lifts
6. Internal doorways and hallways
7. Circulation space
8. Entrance level living space
9. Potential for entrance level bed-space
10. Entrance level WC and shower drainage
11. WC and bathroom walls
12. Stairs and potential through-floor lift in dwellings
13. Potential for fitting the hoist and bedroom/bathroom relationship
14. Bathroom
15. Glazing and window handle heights
16. Location and service control

There is some photos of Lozzells (Birmingham,UK) residential development where few of the 16 requirements had been already applied for the construction.

Knock out panel on the floor for future provision for a lift

The entrance level WC with the potential for a shower to be installed and grab rails to be fixed.

It was calculated that the cost of building to the Lifetime Homes standards range from £574 to £1615 per house.

Most of the 16 Lifetime Home criteria are related with Building Regulation Approved Document Part M. However not all of them match with AD Part M standards. An additional design features should be added to satisfy some of the criteria.

References:
'Lifetime Homes' [Online] Availabe at: http://www.lifetimehomes.org.uk/ [Accessed at 18th of October, 2013]
Images:
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