Download the plans here and watch the construction tour video for a great wheelchair access ramp design that also works well for anyone that finds stairs difficult to climb. The design you see here is flexible enough to be adapted to any home or small business, and the plans include the kind of construction details you don ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate often see on-line. Continue reading for utilitarian tips, and be certain to watch the video recording enlistment of the plans coming up below .
Join 31,000 who get hands-on know-how videos & articles with my Saturday morning newsletter. You’ll love it!
Email Address*
Wheelchair Ramp Intro
VIDEO: Wheelchair Access Ramp Plans Tour
There’s no shortage of general drawings about wheelchair ramps on the internet, but there are very few plans that provide the kind of details you need to actually build one properly. That ’ s what this article and plans are all about. Everything in the blueprint has been thought through, all the parts come together in a legitimate direction, and everything you need to know to customize a proper access ramp is properly here. These plans are printable excessively, so you can have a hard transcript in handwriting and take it to your build locate. Have the plans printed as you read through this article and you ’ ll understand things better. You ’ ll find details below, but watch the video here first base, to put things in position .
Video Feature
Build a Proper Wheelchair Ramp Foundation
Starting with the ramp foundation, the plans show two different approaches. One uses concrete piers, which is what I recommend for decks in general. This is besides the kind of thing you ’ five hundred want to use if your access ramp was going to be completely permanent wave. not all ramps are. sometimes you know that the person survive in the house might be there another four, five, six years, and you don ’ t necessarily want to have the ramp there all the time afterwards. Getting rid of concrete piers after the fact is unmanageable, but that ’ s why I ’ ve included another option where the wooden post extends all the way into the ground. It ’ randomness resting on concrete that ’ s been poured down into the hole after it was dig, just as a solid footing, possibly five or six inches compact, but with no concrete around the mail .
The beauty of this approach is that you can pull those posts out later if you want. A machine could do it, any kind of a machine with a loader can grip onto the top of the post and pull it out. Fill in the trap and it ’ s gone. Whatever you do, don ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate build a wheelchair ramp on top of the soil. Any settle or bowel movement ( and there will surely be some with any deficient foundation garment ) and it could make the ramp much more difficult to use .
Get the Slope Right
One of the main features of any ramp is slope, and you need to get that correct. The plans show that the steepest an access ramp can be is 1 to 12. This means that for every 12 units of horizontal run there can be merely one unit of vertical rebel. That ’ second arsenic steep as a ramp can be by law in most places. If you ’ ve got the room, then it ’ randomness better to spread that out a fiddling bite and have it tied shallower, 1 to 20 is a very nice slope, and very safe. These are the critical ratios that inform everything else that you do as you ’ rhenium building your ramp .
Build a Solid Landing
Another major part of most ramps is the landing. Most ramps need a landing because there ’ randomness good not adequate room to extend a landing-less ramp out in any straight guidance and get the correct gradient. Landings allow you to turn corners with your ramp. It besides makes it safer to use because the gradient is broken up by at least one down, which can make things safer if a wheelchair gets out of control. The landing ’ second very authoritative, because it ’ sulfur got to be quite solid since other parts of the ramp rest on it. In the plans you can see there ’ s the down ramp is resting against the down. The up side that goes down to the grate level is besides resting on the side, so you need to invest some effort in making it solid .
Use 6×6 Support Posts for Wheelchair Ramps
The plans show 6×6 posts and that’s what I recommend for everywhere on the design. You could get by with something smaller, like a 4×4 possibly, in some cases, but it ’ south quite a jump down. One reason a 6×6 is necessary is sol you can cut support notches in them. The plans show how there ’ s a notch on adjoining faces of the down posts, allowing you to install what I call perimeter joists. It ’ sulfur significant that the joists aren ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate just bolted to the side of the post, but they ’ re actually inset into a notch. The plans show how they ’ ra resting on a ledge of wood, and that makes the connection very potent. refer to the plans and you ’ ll see how the perimeter joists rest on notches in the posts .
Bottom of Ramp Details
Turn your attention to the bottom of the wheelchair ramp. That ’ s the place where the wheelchair ramp rests on the anchor. There are a copulate of things going on here you need to know about. First, you don ’ thymine just want the edges of your wheelchair ramp joists to rest directly on the dirt. This will look very well at first, but the ramp is besides going to sink lento into the ground over clock time if you do this, getting exorbitant as it does. Things normally sink into the land unless they have some kind of a proper base, and in this lawsuit, that is the patio slabs shown on the plans. You ’ re going to need at least two, and credibly three to get the width you need .
If I was building a ramp I’d use foundation slabs under the bottom end. These are thick than patio slab – about twice as thick – and they ’ re reinforced so they ’ re quite strong. Foundation slab are meant for resting heavy things onto the dirty, but there ’ s a trick you need to know about. The reason the patio slab don ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate extend all the way to the sharpen end of the ramp in the plans is because if they did you wouldn ’ t be able to drive deck screws down through the deck boards into the joists. The screw would go through the thin region of the ramp joists but wouldn ’ metric ton be able to go far because it would hit the masonry. That ’ sulfur why the patio slab wear ’ metric ton go all the way to the end .
I do recommend a piece of pressure-treated wood along the bottom of the ramp framework to tie everything together. But leave the very sharpen end unsupported by anything but the ground so that those deck screws can extend down through. You ’ ll besides probably have to use some construction adhesive down there, because there ’ s not a fortune of wood for those screws to bite into once they ’ ve gone through the deck boards. PL Premium is the best construction adhesive I ’ ve always used. It comes in a caulk tube and dries hard and hard. I wouldn ’ triiodothyronine use anything else.
Read more: Microwave Scrambled Eggs
Wheelchair Ramp Fascia Boards
Another thing you should look at on the plans are the fascia boards. They ’ re the boards along the side that define the side of the wheelchair ramp. If you look at the top view, you can see that the dashboard boards extend in a continuous line. In this character, that ’ s the side of the ramp, and it meshes nicely with the fascia display panel on the land. It just wraps about. The fascia boards create a decent final edge, and the way the frame is structured it is a continuous carry from the side of the ramp hera to the side of the land .
One other thing to notice is the way the plans leave room for the joist hangers to support the ramp joists on both sides. Joist hangers are metallic element brackets that support joists, as seen in the plans. If this joist was all the means out to the border, you wouldn ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate be able to secure this side of the joist hangers. By insetting it you ’ ve got a collar surface on both sides of each hanger. So it all works out nicely, and there ’ s no pine away wood. It precisely works out absolutely, and you get a courteous, smooth-looking edge .
Wheelchair Ramp Railings
Another thing to pay attention to now is railing design. The digest posts for the railings extend right down to the foundation, either the top of the concrete pier or all the room down into the ground. And these continuous posts are significant for a hearty vilify. The design here has two horizontal members. There ’ s the exceed bannister, and many ramps just call it a day there without anything extra. But having the mid-rail makes things safer. It ’ s not like there ’ s a hale bunch of risk of anyone going through that bannister, but why take the luck ? For an extra few lengths of 2×4 applied to the outside of the posts, you ’ ve got a better looking and safer ramp .
While you’re looking at the railing, take a look on the plans at the top edge of the 2×12 fascia boards. Notice how they extend up higher than the deck boards. This forms a kind of safety ledge that ’ s a necessity in a lot of places. It prevents a wheelchair wheel or the edge of a crutch or walker from slipping over the side. The necessitate for a raised ledge is the reason why the fascia boards need to be american samoa wide-eyed as they are .
There are lots of other details in the plans, and if you’re going to go ahead and build a ramp, it will, by definition, be a kind of custom job. Every house and building lot, is a little morsel different. If you run into any issues, just contact me at [ e-mail protected ]. We ’ ll name things out together following these plans .
Has this information been useful to you? I hope sol. Please consider helping me cover out of pocket expenses creating and publishing contentedness like this. Click the “ buy me a coffee ” and you ’ ll find it safe, fast and easily to make a contribution. Thank you .
Share
Pin
3K
3K
Shares
