Barrier-Free Housing

When purchasing or building a home, it is important to recognize the obstacles that stand in the way of comfortable living. When one considers buying a home, they should be able to access every part of the potential dwelling.

When choosing between building or buying an existing home, your must consider several factors:

Building a New Home

• It will take approximately 9 months, from the time you break ground, to when you can occupy your new home.
• By building, you can have the home adapted to your needs or preferences.

Buying an Existing Home

• You can occupy the home immediately after closing, or immediately after a contractor has completed any needed adaptations.

• When retrofitting a home, you must make sure, you can readily make adaptations. What you must look for follows:

1. The lot should be reasonably level, you want to be able to use the full area of your investment.

2. Make sure you can easily traverse your driveway, if nothing else, to get your mail.

3. Make sure there is room to widen doorways. To procure a VA Grant they must be 36" wide (this can be waived to 28", if you can show no need for 36").

4. When widening doorways, you must consider if electrical outlets or switches will need to be moved.

5. "Rocker" witches and "Lever" doorknobs make anyone’s life easier.

6. Always remember: VA Code requires a slope of only 8 degrees. Make sure steps up at entranceways are not excessive (a general rule of thumb is 1 foot of run to each inch of rise).

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