Reprinted with permission from Builder Architect -   Greater Vancouver, February/March 2000 (see credits below)

User Friendly Homes:

An Inexpensive Construction Standard

Makes Home Comfortable for Everyone

by Susan M. Boyce

User Friendly. It’s a concept elegant in its simplicity, inexpensive in its implementation, and its added bonuses include increased property value, greater functionality, and—most important of all—a safer, more comfortable home environment for all generations.

Yes, a User Friendly Home is "barrier free." Yes, it can accommodate people with limited mobility, strength or dexterity. But Patrick Simpson, president of User Friendly Homes Ltd. and developer of Vancouver’s User Friendly Demonstration Home, is adamant these negative symbols aren’t used on any of the homes he builds. "User Friendly is a positive symbol; it is something normal, everyday, and gets away from the idea that a physical challenge means you have to be segregated. User Friendly design is about building a home people of all ages can live in with dignity and independence for as long as they choose to live there."

Simpson believes changes in health, mobility, family size or age should never force people to move out of their home before they want to. He gestures expansively at the luxurious 3,700-square-foot demonstration home nearing completion at 2281 SW Marine Drive. "There are so many simple, commonsense things you can do at the design stage to prevent that happening," he says obviously delighted by the opportunity to show them off.

 User Friendly for Living

Stepping through the front door initially gives no indication this house is different from any in the surrounding neighbourhood. "People are amazed by the invisibility of it all," acknowledges Mary Ann Clarke Scott, MAIBC, the project’s architect and principal of Generations Architecture Planning Research—a firm that specializes in housing design for aging, disability and diversity. "If we don’t point out the User Friendly features and construction, most people wouldn’t know they were there at all."

In fact, Simpson has to point out that the entry threshold and foyer floor are flush, providing safety for hurried mums and dads laden down with groceries plus briefcase, the shuffling gait of a person relying on a walker or cane, or the cautious first steps of a toddler. "It costs about $25 to do this during framing," he says. "It would be closer to $500 after the fact."

The front door itself, like all interior and exterior doors in the demonstration home, is three feet wide rather than the more common two foot, eight inches. "We spent about $75 extra for all the doors in the house," Simpson explains. "Framing is the same price, but because we can often eliminate one stud, it helps offset the extra cost of the door itself."

Likewise, stairways are six inches wider with handrails running down both sides. "Realtors love it because the openness looks great. And for the extra $25 in wood to build stairs this wide, if you needed to install a glide rail in the future, there’s enough room that it would still be safe for everyone else as well," Simpson explains, adding that fifty per cent of household accidents occur on stairways.

An elevator that can be cleverly converted into two closets until needed—by removing the rails and installing a sub-floor—provides an alternative to the glide rail.

The kitchen, still traditionally the room where people of all ages congregate for conversation as well as food, features counter tops at three different heights to provide comfortable work areas for a six-foot-seven basketball hopeful or a something-less-than-five-foot grandmother. A window-sized pass-through connects with the garage so unloading groceries is a snap—just pop the car trunk and unload them directly onto the counter with no trekking back and forth along the hallway.

During the tour, Simpson constantly returns to the theme that planning ahead is not only cost effective but enhances livability today. In the master bedroom, he points out a pair of double outlets on each side of the bed. "Most houses only have one outlet each side," he says. "But think about being bedridden, even if it’s just with a bad case of the flu. You’re going to want things like a radio, humidifier, extra reading light, electric blanket and the portable phone. For less than $20 [to install the extra outlets], you avoid having a mass of wires, which is never safe."

Some of the biggest surprises are found in some of the smallest rooms—the bathrooms. "This is the room where all your dignity is gone," Simpson says. "By just putting grounded electrical outlets behind every toilet, we’ve done a lot for people because at some point, someone will need help getting on and off. If there’s power available, they will be able to make use of the technology to remain independent longer."

Shower enclosures feature no threshold to trip over, and taps are placed conveniently close to the outside wall instead of directly below the showerhead. Blocking made from 2x12 lumber is installed behind all showers and toilets to facilitate installation of grab bars. And positioning the waste pipes on the sinks at 12 inches instead of the normal 18—a change that costs nothing—ensures that should the counter ever need to be lowered for a person to sit at, the modifications could be done for several hundred dollars rather than several thousand.

Simpson does, however, admit the luxurious Jacuzzi bathtub in the master bedroom ensuite is not quite user friendly. "We tried and tried, but we couldn’t find a way to make it work," he says laughing. "Finally I gave up and told Mary Ann that if we couldn’t make it user friendly, then let’s make it the sexiest bathtub we could find."

 High Tech for Today and Tomorrow

"One of the most exciting things about this home is all the high tech that’s been incorporated," says Clarke Scott. "With things like the Internet, home shopping and home offices, people are moving away from the idea that a house is just a bricks-and-mortar shelter. Everything is here for the entire house to become an intelligent machine."

"Devices like lights, the security system, heat, phone answering machines and kitchen appliances could all be set up to communicate with each other," Simpson says. "Imagine the difference that would make to someone’s ability to stay independent even with mobility problems." And with microchips an essential component of not just computers, but many day-to-day machines like microwaves and refrigerators, a central surge suppressor installed at the breaker panel protects against damage from power fluctuations.

Planning ahead for ever increasing demand and change in communication technologies, the User Friendly Demonstration Home has fibre optic wiring installed as well as RG6 cable wire and level five grade telephone wire capable of handling ISDN and other high speed Internet access. "The upgrading probably cost less than $50," says Simpson, "but it doesn’t matter who’s providing the service or what satellite it’s coming off, we’ll be able to accept it."

Staying Warm

Although the home is large, a state-of-the-art system combined with forward thinking during construction keeps heating costs lower than in many conventional buildings.

The problem of the upper floor becoming too hot, while people downstairs are bundling up in heavy sweaters, is neatly overcome by dividing the house into two independent zones. Motorized zone dampers divert heat to the space where it’s needed while the other rooms remain cool. Plus in summer, the Lennox forced-air furnace becomes an air conditioner.

Reflextex, a reflective aluminum foil, replaces the more typical poly-film holding insulation in place. "The foil never breaks and 90 percent of the heat bounces back into the house," Simpson explains.

"BC Gas has really worked with us as a sponsor on perfecting this system," Simpson acknowledges. Three of the four bathrooms are heated with in-floor hot water heat using the Lennox CompleteHeat system, a combination high-efficiency forced air/hot water heating system that Simpson says can easily keep delivering hot water no matter what demands are put on it. Each fixture in the house receives water through a dedicated line of the Manabloc distribution manifold, which not only gets hot water to any faucet in two to three seconds—about a quarter of the time in a conventional system—but makes shutting lines off for repairs fast and simple.

Skylights, notorious locations for heat loss, are replaced by solar tubes, sealed units that use four reflectors to bring light into difficult areas like closets and interior bathrooms. "There’s no energy loss, these units aren’t prone to leak the way skylights are, and you still get all the benefits of natural light," Simpson says.

Welcome to the Neighbourhood

"People are amazed that a User Friendly house can look so normal," says Leigh Grelish of Trademark Custom Homes and general contractor of the project. "I have eighteen houses under construction right now, and the designer didn’t know they were being built to User Friendly specs."

"People don’t want their house to look different or utilitarian," agrees Clarke Scott. "Having a house that’s User Friendly and attractive isn’t at all a contradictory concept. Unfortunately many people still assume it’s going to be institutional or just a little bit weird." She says from a marketing point of view, changing that perception will be critical.

To help achieve that goal, the demonstration home will be open throughout 2000 for tours and a variety of educational workshops geared to both the trades and the public. "We want to get the message out in a way everyone can understand," says Simpson. "This has to be a program I could talk to my mum about and have her understand it and see the benefits it offers. If we can get even one third of people to build User Friendly Homes, then it becomes a trend."

Being a trendsetter would suit Patrick Simpson just fine.

For a tour of the User Friendly Demonstration Home
at 2281 SW Marine Drive in Vancouver,
or for more information about the User Friendly standard,
contact Patrick Simpson at (604) 264-8878.
Or visit www.userfriendly.bc.ca

This article was reprinted here with permission from the publisher,
Builder Architect - Greater Vancouver -- February/March 2000

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