• residential inlaid sheet vinyl (NOT standard roto-vinyl, but inlaid)

• commercial inlaid sheet vinyl

• vinyl composition tile

• luxury vinyl tile and planks

• ceramic

• stone

• high end laminate wood

• high end commercial carpet tile

hardwood is a bad choice unless you dont mind periodic refinishing.

non-inlaid resilient sheet vinyl is a bad choice, because like carpeting, it will delaminate as well.

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Ditto what the pros said.

I also would add that you should spend some money on some good-looking walkoff mats. A member of my family is in a wheelchair. He has no problem with the inlaid sheet vinyl in my kitchen or the commercial carpet tile on the rest of the floors. But the wheelchair can track in an amazing amount of dirt, slush, etc. I use several feet of mat at the entrance with the ramp (I use the mats that look like -- well, matted-down rubber bands) and that removes most of the dirt/sand/slush before he reaches the vinyl floor.

The house in which he lives has laminate (which looks surprisingly good for four years old, a wheelchair, a larger dog, and some distinct trafficways through the rooms) and (beveled) solid-vinyl tile in the kitchen/dinette. The kitchen tile looks bad because it's ivory-colored, but it's holding up OK.

As others have posted, not only the type of flooring, but the pattern is critical.

Go for a medium-toned, patterned, more matte finish and you'll be a lot happier. We have solid vinyl tile (Metroflor, but Amtico is even better) in a slate-look, and the amount of dirt and abuse it can hide is absolutely amazing.

We intend to build again (one day), and I have already decided that house will have top grade inlaid sheet vinyl floors, in part because of my experience with a wheelchair on hardwood floors. There are some amazingly attractive options available these days to suit any decor. The only downside, IMHO, is resale concerns, but I figure that my heirs can replace the vinyl with carpet and prefinished hardwoods in order to sell that house when the time comes.

I would not like the beveled prefinished hardwoods, as they can be a pain to clean. We had a Bruce prefinished wood floor in portions of our last house that did not handle the dog's claws well, despite our efforts to keep them trimmed, and we had to keep clear plastic chair mats at each computer desk, too.

The point made above about mats cannot be stressed enough. I found that our floors fared far better when we put a rough textured long mat outside each entry door plus a rug inside each door. My wheelchair use was temporary, but should I need one again (or permanently) I will budget for two - one for inside the house and one for outside/travel.

Great suggestions everybody...keep em coming. Thursday is my day to 'floor' shop, again. I'm printing this out to take with me. we've still got about 3 weeks before demo begins on the kitchen and about 6 weeks before downstairs office flooring is ready to put in and hoping to be finished to do upstairs floors by april. Oh yea, we checked into 'glue down' commercial carpet and the #1 thing the salesmen said was, 'it's a real b.... to remove when it has to be replaced.' They said it comes up in fist sized pieces if your lucky. As for the vinyls, i'll check them out Thursday. As for the indoor/outdoor wheelchair, we love to do that when we can...she has 3 chairs now but there always seems to be at least one in the shop for repair. (one's a push chair for emergency-she can't maneuver it herself) we're checking ebay (great place to get 'extra' chairs for another one to have on hand. We spend about $5000 a year just on wheelchair and mobility product upkeep/repair. She's tough on them, but what can we do...certainly not confine her more. We're so grateful she can do what she does. Many, many thanks.

Oh yea, we checked into 'glue down' commercial carpet [...] They said it comes up in fist sized pieces if your lucky.

Hmm ... I must have a different kind of carpet. Mine went down with a pressure-sensitive adhesive that's like sticky-note glue when it dries. I can pull up and replace tiles at will.

We spend about $5000 a year just on wheelchair and mobility product upkeep/repair. She's tough on them, but what can we do...certainly not confine her more.

I hear you. I'm amazed at how expensive wheelchairs are (new, albeit custom-fitted), yet I've left a small toolkit at my brother's place because the darn things need adjusting so often. He's hard on equipment, too. But it's not like it's intentional on his part. And wheelchair manufacturers have to know that a significant number of their customers are tough on the equipment. Makes you wonder ... (sorry, OT)

I just saw your post, so I hope you see my response.

I have similar issues to contend with. My daughter is medically fragile, has seizures, walks but falls down a lot. She spends some time in her wheelchair (although she can't operate it herself since she has cortical blindness). I'm building a house for her to spend the rest of her life, and the flooring has been the hardest decision I've had to make.

I also raise standard labradoodles for service dogs, so I've got three adults scampering around in addition to the occasional litters of puppies.

I've pretty much decided to go with the 'real' linoleum, made from linseed oil and flax seed. This stuff is incredible -- it's naturally antibacteriacidal, fire retardent, soft, you clean it with a damp mop, resistant to scratches, and it comes in a rainbow of colors. I'm looking at laying the sheet product, so I won't have a single threshold inside the house. It's appropriate for kitchens and bathrooms, there's no problem with spills or stains.

I leaned away from vinyl because of the off gassing, carpet because of the antimone that's used to make it fire retardent, tile is too hard for her to keep falling on, laminate still posed a problem with dampness and water getting between the planks, and hardwood was going to get scratched up by the dog nails.

I'm lucky -- Hannah is still young enough that Shriners has paid for both her wheelchairs so far.

I hope this helps!
Summer

Here is a link that might be useful: Here's a link to the marmoleum web site

ithinkican_2007, what did you decide on and how has it worked out?

Larry

We're having trouble deciding on a wheelchair useable floor for a mobile home...can't have very hard wood...has to be a floating floor...contractor has suggested that bamboo is too soft, would show scratches from grit too much, and said the same about the marmoleum...looking for a wool carpet, but my partner seems to have had a bad reaction to the jute of the wool carpet...

trying to do something environmentally friendly that doesn't off gas

any ideas in the next day or so would be appreciated...as we need to make a decision really tomorrow (!) oct. 9

thanks

I also have heard and read alot of great things about marmoleum. I am from the Chicago area and there is a local show called Mr. Fix It kind of like Bob Villa and they swear by the stuff. I was surprised how nice it looks for being such an industrial strenth floor.

Best Laminate has a selection of laminate flooring that is designed to withstand wheelchair and scooter use. They offer a discount for Americans with Disabilities. http://www.bestlaminate.net/adaflooring

Here is a link that might be useful: Flooring for Wheelchairs

It’s been a long time since the last post here — I’m wondering if a good quality, wide plank, engineered white oak floor will be able to withstand the weight load of a mechanical wheelchair + DH. The combined weight of the wheelchair and user approaches near 400 pounds. Our builder would get the raw floor from a highly regarded local mill. We can specify the thickness of the top oak layer. We like the live sawn (Euro) look. The boards come in various lengths (all in excess of 6’) and are 7” wide.

Can we strengthen the floor by getting a thicker top oak layer?

By using any special underlayment?

So far, DH has only used the mechanical wheelchair in our 2d home, a condo which has large format porcelain tile floors laid over a thick concrete structure (on a high floor). We’ve had no problems with the floors there. We have another small condo now near our work with wood floors — he has only used a lightweight wheelchair here (DH and chair = 220 pounds). We’re planning to sell both condos — we’re in the process of building a new house and want to have wood floors in the main living areas and DH plans to use the mechanical chair when on the first floor (plywood over wood joists).

The architect that designed this universal access home gave no warnings about weight restrictions for any of the flooring materials. When I’ve asked the people that supply and/or install the flooring materials, they’ve told me that it something they’ve not faced before and beyond their areas of expertise.

If we can’t use the wide plank, can we use solid narrow 3” or 4” wood? Porcelain?

I really don’t want to use vinyl — but don’t let that get in the way of giving your best advice. 😁

If any of you have knowledge about this topic, I would very much appreciate your input. Thanks in advance.

PS. If we can use wood without the boards cracking from the weight of the mechanical chair, we’ll deal with scratches. The plan is to use 3 layers of the top grade protective Bona Traffic HD finish over the sealer and refinish when necessary.

Do not use floating LVP plank floors. This is what happened after one month of use with my father's wheelchair and mobility pole he needs beside the bed. We are being blamed for installing the pole. They said it is the same as having installed fixed cabinets because does not allow the floor to float. We had no idea these Coretec Galaxy Pro floors were so delicate. We were told they are used in commercial settings and came with a 30 year warranty. However, it appears that if you need assistive devices such as a mobility pole, the warranty is void. They are supposedly okay as long if you glue them down, but we cannot in a condo. We are not allowed glued floors due to noise, and my poor dad has to have the mobility pole he was prescribed by an O.T. to help him get in and out of bed. He also needs the wheelchair and walker. Do not float these floors.

We need to replace the floors but don't know what to use.

Can anyone help?

Are you sure you can’t glue down wood floors in your condo? Are you just renting or do you own it? Our condo is on the second and third floors of a 3 story building. Our LR level is on a thick concrete slab and our BRs are on wood joists and plywood. We had wood floors glued down on both levels. Our condo docs did not restrict this and we did not have to ask permission to make these alterations to the interior of our unit. The floors have held up well to a manual wheelchair and small dog. We also had a vacation condo that had porcelain tiles throughout the whole place. They held up fine to my DH’s 400 lb mechanical wheelchair (plus DH— add 200 lbs).

We are building a new house with glue down engineered 3/4“ wood in most rooms and porcelain in the bathrooms and laundry.

Our condo, which we own, only allows tiles in the bathroom, kitchen and entrance. The rest has to be carpet or floating floors with a thick cork underneath. Any reno has to be approved by the board; we have to submit in writing the proposed changes, materials used, contractors or companies involved, and provide samples of flooring products to be used,. The board checks the work done. It is so much better and easier, and even less costly, to do a reno in a house. If we make changes without the board's approval , we would be fined.

I wonder if your condo board would let you do glue down over cork as a reasonable accommodation given your Dad’s needs. You have a tough set of condo rules! We did a cork underlayment with glue down wood and it has held up to my DH’s manual wheelchair. Our old downstairs neighbor was hard of hearing and used to turn the sound all the way up on her TV. Once we laid the floors, we never heard her TV again. From a noise perspective, I don’t think using a floating floor will protect your downstairs neighbors from noise appreciably more than glue down with cork. Maybe you could get a report Regarding noise from the flooring pros to submit To your condo board. I am very sorry you have to deal with such tough requirements.

These are great ideas. Thank you!

Just found out that one cannot glue floating floors onto cork, according to another flooring company we consulted.

We also have written confirmation from the manufacter, Shaw, that rolling devices, which we understand to mean wheelchairs and walkers, can be used on these floors.

We also have written confirmation from the pole manufacturer that such medical device is perfectly fine to use on a floating floor. Home Depot also stated the same.

The contractor has not reached out to us after the manufacturer's inspection, and the manufacturer cannot make the flooring company help us, although we had an email back in July saying to contact the flooring company to get a plan for repairs. We are still waiting hoping there will be a fair resolution but are losing hope of ever recovering the 10K we spent.

Does anyone have any suggestions regarding the use of wood-look ceramic tile flooring for wheelchairs? Thank you!