How to Build a Wheelchair Ramp for a Porch

By eHow Home & Garden Editor

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The accessibility of your home for disabled and injured guests can be a challenge without a ramp. A sloped driveway and small steps to your porch can cause problems for anyone in a wheelchair who wants to enjoy an afternoon on the porch. You can build a wheelchair ramp for your porch to aid handicapped guests and make transportation of supplies easier.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

Concrete piers
Wooden boards
Hand rails

Step1

Select a shape for your wheelchair ramp before you build any additions to your porch. You can eschew a simple design by wrapping a ramp around your house or using several landings to make a more complex ramp.

Step2

Construct your wheelchair ramp with sufficient clearance for regular guests. You should find a standard wheelchair, measure the width between the wheels and add at least 2 feet to that number to find your width.

Step3

Attach a metal lip to the end of your wheelchair ramp to help guests make a smooth transition toward your porch. Locate a piece of metal with a gradual grade that is the same width as your ramp to decrease effort by wheelchair users.

Step4

Utilize the American with Disabilities Act guidelines for elevation as you build a wheelchair ramp for your porch. These guidelines dictate a standard of 1 inch in elevation for every 12 inches of ramp (see Resources below).

Step5

Avoid digging into your property by using concrete piers to keep your wheelchair ramp in place. These piers anchor your hand rails and posts without stripping any soil. You can build your own piers by following step-by-step guidance from websites like HammerZone (see Resources below).

Step6

Run a series of metal hand rails throughout your ramp to help people reach your porch. Keep these hand rails in place by screwing the base into the side of the ramp while anchoring the bottom into the ground.

Step7

Insert a wide landing between the beginning of your ramp and your porch entrance to help wheelchair users turn around comfortably without bumping into hand rails.

Tips & Warnings

Lay out the ramp boards perpendicular to the hand rails as you complete your wheelchair ramp. A wheelchair running on a ramp with boards laid out parallel to the rails may encounter problems with wheels rubbing in the space between boards.