Aging in place in Casas Adobes

We match across Tucson and the surrounding Pima County communities, so the contractor you are introduced to is one whose crews actually work your part of the county.

Permits, utilities and local rules for Aging in Place work in Casas Adobes

Casas Adobes is unincorporated, so the permit for a widened doorway, a curbless shower or a ramp comes from Pima County Development Services. The water here usually comes from Metro Water District, the Metropolitan Domestic Water Improvement District, whose original service area covers the northwest metro between Lambert Lane and River Road and names Casas Adobes among the communities it serves; Tucson Water supplies some addresses at the edges of the area, so the provider is worth confirming by address. That is the utility reality of this market - a district, a cooperative and the city utility can meet inside one neighbourhood - which is why the property record beats a rule of thumb. The housing is mostly 1960s to 1980s single-storey construction: block and brick veneer in the earliest sections, stucco from the 1970s on, all on slabs, with a five-by-eight hall bath behind a 28 to 30 inch door and a garden tub plus a separate shower appearing in the larger plans from the 1980s. There are active-adult and villa sections inside the area as well, where the doors are wider and the work concentrates on the shower and the floor.

Municipal reference: Metro Water District

Getting an accessibility contractor out to Casas Adobes

Casas Adobes is reached on Oracle Road (AZ-77) from Tucson, or from I-10 on the Ina Road exit and then east; Ina Road, Thornydale Road, Orange Grove Road, La Cholla Boulevard, Magee Road and Shannon Road carry the traffic through it. The area sits between Oracle Road and the Santa Cruz River, which means the drive from central Tucson is short and flat and a crew can usually add a Casas Adobes address to a northwest day rather than making a separate trip. Staging is the practical question. The 1960s and 1970s streets were laid out for one car per house, so a dumpster, a material delivery and a work vehicle at the same address can be one vehicle too many, and some blocks have no driveway long enough to hold both. The other local note is the ground: this part of the northwest metro is caliche over expansive clay, so a walkway that has tilted or a driveway that has cracked is usually soil movement rather than poor concrete, and a contractor quoting a ramp will want to see where the ground has already moved before setting the slope.

What Casas Adobes's housing stock means for aging in place

Casas Adobes is mid-century and 1970s suburban Tucson, and the accessibility picture follows the decade of the house. The earliest sections are single-storey block or brick-veneer houses on a slab, with two or three bedrooms, one or two baths, a tub-and-shower combination in a small hall bath and a doorway of 28 to 30 inches; floors are tile or carpet over slab, and the tile is slick when wet. The 1970s and 1980s houses are stucco on the same slab, with slightly wider doors in many plans and a master bath that has grown a garden tub plus a separate shower - and it is the tub that usually goes first. Wall construction is masonry or framed with a board finish, so whether a grab bar can go straight into the wall or has to have blocking added is a question the contractor answers by opening the wall, not by looking at it. The exterior is where the local detail sits: a carport or a garage a step below the living level, a covered patio a step below that, and a front walk that is unshaded through the hottest months. Houses of this vintage sit on the same caliche and expansive clay as the rest of the northwest side, so movement in the slab is common and worth mentioning before a recessed shower base is priced.

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Sources

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