How to get out of the property: Various ways to refine pathways using paving slabs

In home care, whether or not one can easily go outis a very important factor in continuing that care.By using long-term care insurance, you can literally outsource some of the functions of home care.Things like day services or short stays. Anyone who has experienced it knows well that this is essential not only for the user themselves but also for protecting the health of the caregiver who spends their days with them.

Therefore, when receiving such consultations, I used to consider various factors, such as whether to use concrete, to choose the material for the pathway, but recently I feel like I have mostly settled on this.

Permeable paving slabs. These are the familiar items often used on sidewalks in your town when they are updated in accordance with the Barrier-Free Act. They are such a common presence that you might not have noticed them, but they are doing a great job right under your feet.
The features of these are:

1. They allow water to pass through

Please don't say that's obvious. This factor actually comes into play in narrow spaces within a property. If you were to build a perfect concrete pathway, can you imagine what would happen to that area when it rains?

In short, the pathway becomes a dam. Therefore, depending on the permeability of the ground, the water may not drain well, and small ponds may form, which is not very good. So, we sometimes install PVC pipe drains in key locations, but they tend to get clogged.

But with permeable paving slabs, water passes through the slabs, making it difficult for puddles to form next to the pathway. Drainage is improved even in such cases, and when thinking about how to route the pathway, there is less to worry about regarding water. I am very grateful for that.

2. The surface is slip-resistant

As expected for use on public sidewalks, the surface of permeable paving slabs is properly textured (but not sharp) to provide an anti-slip effect. It also looks clean.

If this were concrete, the surface finish would depend on the skill of the craftsman, and depending on the weather and season, it could become a nightmare. Especially during the coming season.
Concrete in the summer seems to harden at lightning speed compared to other times of the year, which means the window for finishing is short. So, the craftsman desperately tries to flatten it, press it with a steel trowel, and add a brushed pattern for slip resistance. But they often can't take enough time, and the finish tends to be less than ideal.
Also, even if it doesn't rain until the work is finished, if it rains immediately afterward, the surface might end up with rain-pitted marks. In short, concrete flooring has many aspects that require careful attention during construction.
That's what ready-mixed concrete means. It really is a living thing.

3. It can be walked on shortly after construction

The surface of the paving slabs is already hardened. Because they are concrete products.
So, once the work is finished, you can walk on it from that day if you want to. Very carefully, though.
This is not the case with concrete pouring. It will be mostly hard by the next day, but the surface will get damaged. So, as the construction side, we would like you to let it cure for about three days if possible, but in a detached house, there are actually very few cases where you can allow the pathway from the entrance to be unusable for a while. So the choice becomes the paving slabs that can be walked on immediately.

I suppose that's about it.

Let's actually see what it's like.

A consultation from someone with a visual impairment. They go out with assistance, but it has become difficult to walk, so we are improving the environment so they can go out safely.
In this case, to ensure they can go out safely by shuffling or using a wheelchair, we will thoroughly improve the steps to the outside. So, starting the pathway level adjustment.

We also adjust the height of things like the feet of air conditioner outdoor units at this time.

Here, there was a 120° turn in the pathway, so we chose the shape of the pathway to accommodate both shortcuts and turning maneuvers when moving with a wheelchair.

We have shaped it so that one can get to the road without any steps at all. The width is 90cm by lining up three 30cm paving slabs, which is a dimension that can also accommodate a self-propelled wheelchair.

A point to be careful about during construction is that cutting these paving slabs with a diamond cutter creates noise and dust. Even if you use a dust collector, some will still fly around, so you need to properly explain this to the neighbors so as not to cause trouble with their laundry. Therefore, it is also quite important to plan the layout so that you do not increase the number of cuts unnecessarily.

By the way, the one we use is this one recommended by our scaffolders. Apparently, because it lacks the side locking groove, the joints pack in properly, making it easier to work with.

Acrina Pave [Toyo Kogyo Co., Ltd.]

Now, for pathways like this, it would be best if they connected all the way to the outside on their own, but there are times when that is not possible.
In such cases, we build the pathway assuming it will be combined with a rental ramp. Please take a look at the before and after.

But actually, paving slabs are not very good at being laid at an angle. They tend to slide around while you are setting them. Each one weighs 11kg, so they are quite heavy. Therefore, we had them laid in order from the bottom, and somehow it took shape.

However, with just this, it is difficult to get in and out even with assistance. So, a ramp is necessary.

By the way, regarding the availability of the ramp, quoting from the website of the manufacturer of this ramp,[Dunlop Home Products Ltd.]it looks like this. With the longest one, you can handle a 70cm step.
However, for this slope, we have decided to only perform the work if there is a care staff member present for transport. Because if it is elderly-to-elderly care, the danger of both of them running out of control cannot be denied.

For this case, we also had the transport staff check the operation in advance. Although the design is quite tight, it seems that thanks to this, the user can now go to day care three times a week and has been able to take a bath for the first time in a long while.

Furthermore, if you apply this way of thinking, it also works even if there are stairs along the way.
Here is the before and after for this as well.

It became a 6-step staircase with a handrail on the side, a tread of 300mm, and a riser of 110mm. However, by hooking a 2.7m long ramp onto the top step, it also serves as preparatory work that can accommodate wheelchair access.


For requests like 'I can still walk on my own, but I want to be able to use a wheelchair in the future,' I think this proposal, which leaves room for walking out, is better than thinking about a ramp right away. If you only have a steep ramp as a pathway option, it is actually dangerous.

※Postscript

I also wrote about a case where small steps were intentionally placed in succession to accommodate wheelchairs. For your reference.