It’s an easy plumbing job to replace a single shower head with a combination shower head/ hand-held shower on a flexible hose. That way you can shower outside the alcove. It could work quite well if your bathroom has a floor drain, and it should be fairly cheap. You would need to move furniture around to make a ‘wet area’.
It was a shock to me to find that USA bathrooms often have no floor drain, as they are compulsory where I am. If the steps are down to the shower floor, it should be fairly straightforward to redirect the water into the shower floor. If you have a ground floor toilet or laundry with a floor drain, it might be easier to put a shower chair (eg over the pan) and get the flexible shower head connected into the water pipe there.
More likely, the steps mean that the shower floor is over a foot above bathroom floor level. This is odd, and the first step is to find out why. Does the space below the shower poke upwards to force the floor up, and if so can that be changed? That’s likely to be expensive. A cheap but not perfect option could be to modify a shower chair so that short back legs fit on the shower floor and longer legs on the bathroom floor. With the hand-held shower pointing backwards into the shower, and most of his body inside the shower space, you could minimise the water on the bathroom floor and mop it up after the shower.
These are DIY options, in case you can’t get affordable help. But before you ‘invest’ in expensive structural changes, think about how long they will be needed, and what your options are for adequate washing without an actual shower.
Is your husband a Veteran? If so the VA has some programs that might help offset the cost. Check your local Senior Center it is possible that they have lists of people that might do this type of work.
Frankly I am trying to picture a shower with a 8 inch step and a 5 inch one. Maybe a shower chair or bench in a bath tub might be an option until you can get the shower done. If you do go this route look for a bench or chair that has a back to it that will provide more support.
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It was a shock to me to find that USA bathrooms often have no floor drain, as they are compulsory where I am. If the steps are down to the shower floor, it should be fairly straightforward to redirect the water into the shower floor. If you have a ground floor toilet or laundry with a floor drain, it might be easier to put a shower chair (eg over the pan) and get the flexible shower head connected into the water pipe there.
More likely, the steps mean that the shower floor is over a foot above bathroom floor level. This is odd, and the first step is to find out why. Does the space below the shower poke upwards to force the floor up, and if so can that be changed? That’s likely to be expensive. A cheap but not perfect option could be to modify a shower chair so that short back legs fit on the shower floor and longer legs on the bathroom floor. With the hand-held shower pointing backwards into the shower, and most of his body inside the shower space, you could minimise the water on the bathroom floor and mop it up after the shower.
These are DIY options, in case you can’t get affordable help. But before you ‘invest’ in expensive structural changes, think about how long they will be needed, and what your options are for adequate washing without an actual shower.
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Check your local Senior Center it is possible that they have lists of people that might do this type of work.
Frankly I am trying to picture a shower with a 8 inch step and a 5 inch one.
Maybe a shower chair or bench in a bath tub might be an option until you can get the shower done. If you do go this route look for a bench or chair that has a back to it that will provide more support.