Nursing Home Design Guide
2006
in resident toilet rooms and showers, in
Soft colors
lieu of harder and sometimes uneven
Warm finishes
surfaces such as ceramic tiles with
Music
grouted joints. Carefully selected and
Healing gardens
appropriately specified carpeting
materials used in lieu of harder surfaces
may also minimize injuries due to falls in
resident rooms and unit corridors,
especially when recessed flush with
adjacent flooring materials. Consider
the following when choosing a flooring
material in Nursing Home facilities:
Readily cleanable surfaces
Water resistance in food
consumption and preparation areas
Being physically unaffected by
germicidal cleaning solutions.
Figure 2.18
Avoid or minimize slippery floor
Main Lobby Wall Aquarium
surfaces, area rugs, and abrupt changes
New York State Veterans Home
in flooring materials without tapered
Montrose, NY
thresholds or nosings. (See Figure
2.20) Reflective, glossy floors are to be
avoided for a number of reasons.
Beside the obvious fall hazard it
presents, for those residents with vision
degeneration diseases and depth
perception issues, this finish can easily
deceive the elderly population and
cause unwanted behavioral and
management problems. There are
numerous low-luster resilient floorings
available, with VCT (vinyl composite tile)
being the preferred solution due to its
cost and maintenance ease when
Figure 2.19
replacement is necessary.
Front Lobby
Consider carpet density when selecting
Western Kentucky Veterans Center
Madisonville, KY
it as a floor covering. Carpet density is
the amount of pile yarn in unit volume of
1. Floors
the carpet. This number translates into
To minimize the number of falls and
a "carpet traffic classification" which
cushion them when they do occur,
ranges from:
consider using continuous, slip resistant
and resilient flooring materials, such as
I (light)
sheet rubber or vinyl with welded joints,
Office of Facilities Management
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