Blocking for Grab Bars and Later Changes

Blocking costs about forty dollars in timber and has exactly one day on which it can be installed. The list of positions collected by master bathroom remodeling lakewood ca osmhi covers far more than a grab bar, since a Lakewood bathroom wall eventually has to hold a bench, a rail, a heavy mirror or a wall hung vanity.

Where It Goes

Beside and behind the toilet at thirty three to thirty six inches. Along the long wall of the shower and on the entry side. Across the tub at the same height. Behind the vanity for the mounting rail. Above the basin for a cabinet or a heavy mirror. At the towel rail positions. Every one of these is a sheet of plywood or a length of solid timber let into the studs.

Plywood Beats Two by Fours

A continuous sheet of three quarter inch plywood across a whole wall section gives a fixing anywhere on that wall rather than at one predicted height. It costs a little more and it removes the need to guess correctly. On the shower wall, where the grab bar position depends on the person, this is the difference between a choice and a compromise.

Photograph It Before It Disappears

Take a picture of every open wall with a tape measure in the frame, showing the height of each block from the subfloor. Store it somewhere the household will find it in ten years. Blocking nobody can locate is blocking that gets drilled around, which wastes both the timber and the day it went in on.

This Is Not About Age

A person on crutches for six weeks after a knee operation needs the same fixing as anybody else, and that happens in every household eventually. Blocking is not a commitment to install anything now. It is the removal of a future decision that would otherwise mean opening a tiled wall to make.

The Day It Happens

After framing, before insulation and backer board, at the same visit as the ledger for the vanity. Put it on the rough in checklist alongside the valve height and the niche position, since it belongs to that stage and there is no second opportunity once the waterproofing is on the wall.