Lake Balboa New Construction With a Level, Step-Free Suite
New Construction in Lake Balboa with a ground-floor bedroom and bath: a level entry, wide doors, a curbless shower on a recessed slab and grab bar blocking.
A bedroom and bath on the ground floor, reached from the garage or front walk without a step, lets a new Lake Balboa house work for anyone who finds stairs hard, today or later. That takes a level entry, doors wide enough for a wheelchair, a shower with no curb and blocking in the bathroom walls for grab bars. Each one is easy to build in at framing and costly to add after.
A level way in
A step-free route from the drive to the door starts with the slab height. A slab floor can meet a walk that rises gently to it, with a low threshold and a trench drain outside the door to catch water, while the slab edge keeps the wall framing clear of the soil. Inside, doors of 36 inches give clear width for a wheelchair, and hallways are kept wide enough to turn around in. Switches and outlets can be set at heights reachable from a seat, a simple choice while the electrician lays out the boxes.
The bathroom and the bedroom
A curbless shower needs its slab recessed under the shower area, so the tile and its slope to the drain sit flush with the floor around it, and a linear drain along the back wall keeps water inside. Solid wood blocking between the studs around the toilet, the shower and the tub takes grab bars whenever they are wanted. A bedroom on this level with its own closet and an outlet beside the bed rounds out the suite. Lake Balboa is within the City of Los Angeles, and LADBS reviews these plans with the rest of the house.
About our new construction workEverything we build in Lake Balboa
New Construction in Lake Balboa: questions
Heights at the front walk and the driveway matter more than usual here, since a step-free entry depends on them, so the surveyor records them along with the lot lines. A soils report from borings follows, and the structural engineer marks the recessed slab areas on the foundation plan from it.
Soil under the slab and in every utility trench has to be compacted and tested. A wide side yard lets a ride-on roller do it in a few passes. A narrow one limits the work to a walk-behind plate or a jumping jack, which compacts in thinner layers and takes more time and more density tests. Which machine fits is settled on the site walk and priced into the earthwork.
Before pricing, we check the foundation sheet for the shower recess. If the architect shows a curbless shower but the structural plan shows a flat slab, the recess, its thickened edge and the drain location are added first, since cutting a slab later is costly. Wider doors, blocking and the level entry are priced from the plans as drawn.
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