Hi, hoping for some advice or a pointer to a product I've not found.
My FIL is struggling to stand up when getting out of bed. He would like a horizontal grab rail fitted to a wall that runs parallel to the side of his bed, so he can reach out in front and pull himself from being seated on the edge of the bed to standing. The bed rails I've seen are fitted in line with the edge of the bed and due to some snapped tendons he has weakness in his arms that means he can pull himself up, but can't push himself up. The wall is an exterior cavity wall, both skins are brick.
When I measured up, to do it as he wants would mean a horizontal grab rail 30-40cm from the wall. I can't find any grab-rails that extend this far from the wall, and I suspect the reason is because the torque moment from someone pushing down on the rail would pull out most types of fixing at the worst possible moment.
Typically, grab rails stand-off about 10cm from the wall.
- The simple solution is move his bed nearer the wall and use a 10cm stand-off grab rail, but I doubt I'll convince him to let me move it close enough.
- The ideal solution is to find a grab-rail with 30-40cm standoff, use resin anchors to hold it on and to be honest, keep my fingers crossed it won't pull out.
- I could use something like Q-clamps and tubing to build a grab bar that is bolted to the wall but also has legs extending down to the floor at the front corners... might look a bit industrial though and could pose a tripping hazard if I don't set the front legs back enough.
Is there an approach I'm missing?
My FIL is struggling to stand up when getting out of bed. He would like a horizontal grab rail fitted to a wall that runs parallel to the side of his bed, so he can reach out in front and pull himself from being seated on the edge of the bed to standing. The bed rails I've seen are fitted in line with the edge of the bed and due to some snapped tendons he has weakness in his arms that means he can pull himself up, but can't push himself up. The wall is an exterior cavity wall, both skins are brick.
When I measured up, to do it as he wants would mean a horizontal grab rail 30-40cm from the wall. I can't find any grab-rails that extend this far from the wall, and I suspect the reason is because the torque moment from someone pushing down on the rail would pull out most types of fixing at the worst possible moment.
Typically, grab rails stand-off about 10cm from the wall.
- The simple solution is move his bed nearer the wall and use a 10cm stand-off grab rail, but I doubt I'll convince him to let me move it close enough.
- The ideal solution is to find a grab-rail with 30-40cm standoff, use resin anchors to hold it on and to be honest, keep my fingers crossed it won't pull out.
- I could use something like Q-clamps and tubing to build a grab bar that is bolted to the wall but also has legs extending down to the floor at the front corners... might look a bit industrial though and could pose a tripping hazard if I don't set the front legs back enough.
Is there an approach I'm missing?
