Aging in place in Oro Valley

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 Oro Valley

Oro Valley is an incorporated town, so the permit for a curbless conversion, a widened doorway or an exterior ramp comes from the Town of Oro Valley, and the water account is with the town's own Oro Valley Water Utility - one of the few places on this list where the permit counter and the utility are the same government. Tucson Water supplies some addresses around the edges of the town, so the provider is worth confirming by address. The reference point that matters most here is not the utility but the association: a large share of this area is inside gated communities, villa clusters and condominium buildings, and at those addresses the architectural review runs alongside the town permit and usually takes longer than the permit itself. The housing is newer than the in-town grid, which changes the work. The villas and coach homes built from the 1980s through the 2000s were designed with a covered patio and a step down to it, interior doors of 30 to 36 inches, and a garden tub rather than a five-foot tub in the master bath. That means the doorway is frequently already wide enough and the project narrows to the shower: taking out the tub, forming a curbless or low-threshold entry, fixing blocking for grab bars and changing the flooring over a smooth tile floor.

Municipal reference: Oro Valley Water Utility - Town of Oro Valley

Getting an accessibility contractor out to Oro Valley

Oro Valley is reached on Oracle Road (AZ-77), which runs straight up through it from Tucson, or from I-10 on the Tangerine Road and Ina Road exits and then east; Tangerine Road, Lambert Lane, La Canada Drive, Naranja Drive, Rancho Vistoso Boulevard and First Avenue carry the traffic inside the town. Because I-10 and Oracle Road bracket the area, a crew can come in from either side, and the drive from central Tucson is short. Within the town the streets are newer and wider than in-town, with driveways and room to stage, which is the reverse of the older neighbourhoods south of here. The difference from the valley floor is the grade: much of Oro Valley is built on the slope at the foot of the Santa Catalinas, so lots run down to the garage, front walks rise or fall more than they look like they do from the street, and a ramp has to be set against ground that is already moving away from the door.

What Oro Valley's housing stock means for aging in place

Oro Valley is newer stock, and the newer stock reads differently for accessibility. The single-storey villas and coach homes that make up much of the town were built with an open plan, tile throughout, a step down from the living area to a covered patio, and interior doors of 30 to 36 inches; the master bath usually has a garden tub plus a separate shower, and it is the tub that goes first, because a 14 inch apron in a corner is the hardest thing in the house to get over. Wall construction is concrete block or framed and finished with board, so grab-bar blocking has to be planned rather than assumed, and the exterior doors are usually sliders sitting on a track that is itself a low trip point at the threshold. Because so much of the housing is on graded ground, the entry is where this town's work concentrates: an unshaded concrete walk in full summer sun, a driveway that falls away from the garage, and a step at the door that is one riser higher than the house next door. The two-storey houses and the condominium buildings add stairs, and in some buildings an elevator, to the question - stairs are one of the two places the falls guidance names most often. Whether a floor can be recessed for a true curbless base depends on the structure and the slab, and that is a contractor and engineer call, not a website one.

What accessibility work does a Oro Valley home need most?

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Sources

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