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Accessible Design for a Custom Home: The 40 Features Worth Building In Now, and the Ones Vancouver Made Law
Plans and design Accessible and adaptable From a builder
Accessible Design for a Custom Home: The 40 Features Worth Building In Now, and the Ones Vancouver Made Law
Nobody plans to need a walker. Then a knee goes, or a parent moves in, or you are carrying a baby and a bag of groceries up three steps in January. Most accessible design costs nothing at the framing stage and a fortune afterward, so here is the list we go through on every plan, whether the client is 35 or 75.
Short version: Ontario’s Building Code does not require accessibility features inside a single-family house; the decisions are yours. The ones that cost little or nothing when the house is framed and a lot later: one zero-step entry under a roof, 36-inch doors and 42-inch halls, a bedroom and a full bath on the main floor, a curbless shower or a tub that can become one, blocking in the bathroom walls for grab bars, lever handles, rocker switches at 36 to 40 inches, outlets at 18 to 24 inches, a laundry on the main floor, and a stair wide enough for a lift. Vancouver made lever handles and some of these law for new houses in 2014; Ontario did not, which is exactly why you have to ask for them.
What the Code requires, and does not
Part 9 of the Ontario Building Code (houses) does not require barrier-free design inside a detached house, semi or townhouse; the barrier-free rules in Section 3.8 apply to public and larger residential buildings. The AODA does not reach into private homes either. A few things in a house are regulated for everyone: stair rise and run, handrails, guard heights, and door widths for egress. Everything else on this page is a choice, which is the point: nobody will make you build a house you can grow old in. The secondary-suite and multigenerational rules in recent Code changes make it easier to add a suite for a parent; the multigenerational home renovation tax credit helps pay for it.
Getting in
- One entry with no step: the porch or landing at the same level as the floor, under a roof so there is no ice, with a landing 5 by 5 feet on the latch side of the door. With an ICF foundation and a walkout or a graded path, this is a grading decision, not a ramp.
- A path from the car to that door at least 36 inches wide with no more than a 1-in-20 slope.
- A 36-inch entry door (34 inches clear), a low or flush threshold, a lever handle, a keypad or smart lock, a sidelight or a peephole at two heights, and good light on both sides.
- A shelf or bench inside the door to put things down. Designing a custom home covers the entry sequence as a design problem.
Moving around
- 36-inch doors everywhere, including closets and the bathroom; 42-inch hallways where you can, 36 minimum.
- No split levels, no sunken rooms, no change in floor level between rooms, flush transitions between floor materials.
- Hard, non-slip floors; low-pile carpet if any; no throw rugs.
- An open plan with room to turn around: a 5-foot circle in the kitchen, the bathroom and the main bedroom.
- A straight stair at least 40 inches wide with handrails both sides, treads at least 10 inches, closed risers, no nosing, lit top and bottom, with a framed-in space for a future stair lift or a stacked closet that can become an elevator shaft. How much house you need argues for the bungalow that makes most of this moot.
The main floor
- A bedroom (12 by 12 or better) and a full bath on the main floor, even if the bedroom starts life as an office.
- Laundry on the main floor near the bedroom and bath, or the plumbing and power roughed in so it can move there.
- The electrical panel on the main floor where you can reach it.
Kitchen
- Counter at two heights, or one section at 30 to 32 inches with knee space below.
- Knee space under the sink with insulated pipes; a single-lever, anti-scald faucet.
- Wall oven with a side-hinged door at a reachable height; a cooktop with front controls; the dishwasher raised on a platform.
- Drawers and pull-outs instead of base cabinets with doors; D-pulls instead of knobs; task lighting over every work surface.
- Landing space beside every appliance to set things down. Choosing kitchen cabinets has the hardware detail.
Bathroom
- A curbless shower at least 40 by 40 inches (40 by 60 for a roll-in with help), floor sloped no more than 1/8 inch per foot, a linear drain, a handheld shower on a slide bar, and a fold-down seat or room for one.
- If you want a tub now, frame the space so the tub can come out and a curbless shower go in later.
- Blocking (2×10 solid wood) in every wall around the toilet, tub and shower at 33 to 36 inches for grab bars, whether or not the bars go in. This costs twenty dollars at framing and a wall rebuild later.
- 30 by 48 inches clear in front of each fixture, 60 by 60 ideal; a comfort-height toilet; a single-lever anti-scald faucet; a vanity with knee space or one that can get it.
- A door that swings out or slides, so a person who falls does not block it. The before-drywall checklist is where the blocking gets confirmed.
Switches, windows and controls
- Rocker switches at 36 to 40 inches; outlets at 18 to 24 inches; thermostat and controls at 48 inches; extra outlets beside the bed.
- Casement or awning windows with crank handles reachable from a chair, sills at 24 to 30 inches so you can see out sitting down.
- Lever handles on every door; D-pulls on cabinets; keyless entry. Lighting and outlet planning puts the heights on the electrical plan.
Outside
- A maintenance-free exterior and trim, low-maintenance planting, and a garage with a 3-foot path around the car and a step-free route to the house door.
- A covered entry, a lit path, and a hose bib and outlet near where the car parks.
The doorknob ban, for the record
In 2014 Vancouver amended its building by-law to require lever handles and a few other adaptable features in new houses, and a national newspaper column called it the worst ban ever. Ontario did not follow and still has no such rule for private houses. We put lever handles on anyway: they cost the same, a person with arthritis, a child, or someone carrying a casserole can open them, and nobody has ever asked us to take one out. The larger point of that by-law was right even if the headline was fun: the cheapest time to make a house usable by everyone who will ever live in it or visit it is before the drywall.
What it costs
Done at the design and framing stage, the list above adds roughly 1 to 3 percent to the cost of a house: a few wider doors, blocking, a flush entry detail, a curbless shower pan instead of a tub, drawers instead of doors. Done as a renovation after someone needs it, the same list is a $60,000 to $150,000 job with a ramp on the front. Designing to a target budget is where it goes in the plan, and forever-home features is the longer version of this argument.
Related guides on this site
Sources and further reading
Questions people ask
Does the Ontario Building Code require accessible features in a new house?
No. Barrier-free requirements apply to public and larger residential buildings, not to a detached house, semi or townhouse. Stair, handrail, guard and egress rules apply to everyone; the rest is the owner's choice.
What are the most important accessible features to build into a new home?
A zero-step covered entry, 36-inch doors and 42-inch halls, a main-floor bedroom and full bath, a curbless shower or a tub space that can become one, blocking for grab bars, lever handles, rocker switches at 36 to 40 inches and outlets at 18 to 24 inches, and main-floor laundry.
How much does accessible design add to the cost of a new house?
About 1 to 3 percent when it is designed and framed in from the start. Retrofitting the same features later typically costs $60,000 to $150,000.
Are lever door handles required in Ontario?
Not in private houses. Vancouver required them in new houses from 2014; Ontario has no equivalent rule. They cost the same as knobs and are easier for everyone, so most custom builders fit them anyway.
Have a plan already?
Send it to ICFhome.ca and we will tell you what it costs to build and where the drawing is spending money you may not want to spend.
Reviewed and updated October 2026. Costs are Ontario ranges, not quotes; code references are to the Ontario Building Code in force at that date.
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Thank you for this article. Accessible design means designing homes so that individuals with or without disabilities can use them more effectively.