An access door into a home, that is elevated off the ground has some sort of landing in front of it. It may be a wood deck or a concrete porch and in most cases it will have three sides available that can be used to mate with the wheelchair ramp.
It may be necessary to use a threshold ramp in order to provide a smooth transition from the deck or porch through the access door.
The ramp will want to begin at a walkway or driveway and end at the current landing for the access door.
- Through steps one and two you should have determined the starting point of the wheelchair ramp, the shape shape of the wheelchair ramp and which side of the current access door landing you will connect to.
This should now allow you to determine the rise and from this determine and how many additional landings will be needed.
As I initially said, there is no hard and fast set of plans or designs for wheelchair ramps, each one must be customized to suit the height of the access door, the terrain and the ramp starting point.
The construction of the wheelchair ramp is done in a similar manner to that of a deck. Uprights must be positioned to support the ramps and landings and then it should be finished with a railing of some sort.
Wheelchair Ramp Construction:
- The supports or uprights for the ramps and landings can be constructed in one of three manners.
- Wood post on a solid concrete pier and footing, as shown in Figure 7.
Figure 7 - Post on solid concrete pier and footing
- Wood post embedded in a concrete footing, as shown in Figure 8.
Figure 8 - Post embedded in a concrete footing
- Wood post on pre-cast concrete pier and footing, as shown in Figure 9.
Figure 9 - Wood post on pre-cast concrete pier and footing
Building codes govern the minimum size, spacing and the depth of foundation supports. A typical code calls for a 16 inch square or 18 inch diameter footings that are 8 inches thick.
To calculate how much concrete you may download our free concrete calculator.