3 Flooring Strategies to Boost the Mobility Of Your Elderly Parents
For your elderly parents to live independently, small changes to flooring can make a big difference to their mobility. Factors like underfoot comfort, pliability and safety reign supreme when it comes to choosing floors to boost the mobility of your elderly parents. Consider these options to boost the mobility of your elderly parents when hiring flooring services to update the home.
Choose A Material With Underfoot Comfort
Soft floors are more ideal than harder flooring option because they provide greater underfoot comfort, which makes it easier for your elderly parents to stand on. Carpets, cork floors and rubber floors are good choices over hard tiles or wood because they put less pressure on feet, ankles and knees thanks to their softer bases. Budget-friendly polypropylene carpeting starts from $20 per square metre. Nylon carpets begin from $40 per square metre. Wool carpets range from between $50 and $60 per square metre. As a type of soft timber flooring option, you can expect to pay anywhere from $15 to $150 per square metre. Budget-friendly rubber flooring starts from $30 per square metre and can go up based on your preferences.
Look For Fall Or Slip Resistant Floors
Safety is a key priority when it comes to flooring choices for seniors, so you'll want floors with fall or slip resistant properties to ensure your parents remain safe. Carpets and cork floors are usually textured, which makes them more resistant to falls and slips. But carpets should ideally be covered from end to end. This leaves no room for them to fold up and cause trips when your parents move around the house. Rubber can be treated with a non-slip coating, providing enough grip to make them friendlier for your senior parents. This allows your parents to move around freely without worrying about slippery floors getting in their way.
Avoid Heavy Flooring Designs
Your elderly parents probably don't have the same level of eyesight that they used to, which means they may find it distracting to walk over floors with camouflaging designs and heavy patterns. These distracting patterns can trick their eyes into taking wrong steps, which could potentially cause them to fall. Instead, opt for single-coloured floors to help your parents move around the home more easily without worrying about falling.
Flooring choices for your elderly parents need careful thought to ensure that they provide safety, slip resistance and comfort, so make sure to not choose the cheapest option.