Step-free access means being able to get in and out of your home without facing a step. It sounds minor until it becomes the reason someone stops going out at all. In many buildings in Alicante the problem is not the lift: it is that the lift starts at the mezzanine and there are four steps in the entrance hall that nobody has resolved in fifty years.
At Grupo Construcciones Alicante we carry out accessibility works and barrier removal in homes, entrance halls and commercial premises across Alicante and the province. We handle both the adaptation of a whole building (ramp, lowered entrance, lift taken to street level) and work inside the home: replacing the bath with a level-access shower, widening doors, fitting grab rails and leaving the turning space needed to move around with a wheelchair or walking frame.
We call you back and come to see it. Reply the same working day.
🔒 No obligation. We never share your details.
The first consequence is the most important and cannot be measured in money: it lets people stay in their own home. Most forced moves by older people happen not because of the home itself, but because of the entrance hall, the bath or a narrow corridor. Resolving that costs far less than changing your life.
Then there is safety: the bath is where most domestic falls happen, and a level-access shower with anti-slip flooring and properly positioned grab rails almost eliminates that risk. And finally, property value: an accessible home greatly widens the pool of possible buyers and tenants, and in a building, accessibility now weighs in the valuation.
Accessibility work is measured before it is designed. These are our steps:
We measure what governs everything: clear widths of doors and corridors, changes of level, turning space for a wheelchair and the condition of the access from the street. Those dimensions determine what is possible and what is not.
A fixed quote with the specific solutions, along with information on the accessibility grants that may apply to your case and the documentation they usually require.
We plan the works so the home or entrance hall stays usable throughout, with a safe temporary route if the access itself has to be altered.
We build to the dimensions the accessibility regulations set: gradients, widths, heights of controls and approach spaces, not simply whatever fits.
We check the actual passage on site with a wheelchair or frame, not only on the drawing, and adjust the height of grab rails and controls to the person who will use them.
We hand over the completed work and go through each element with you, because a grab rail at the wrong height gets in the way instead of helping.
Access to the building. The first and most decisive element. Depending on the space available, it is resolved with a ramp (which needs a gentle gradient and enough run, not always possible in narrow entrance halls), by lowering the hall floor, or with a vertical platform lift where the change in level is large and there is no room for a ramp. In buildings where the lift starts at the mezzanine, the usual solution is to extend it to street level or fit a platform covering that flight.
The bathroom. The most frequent job and the one that most changes daily life. Replacing the bath with a level-access shower, with anti-slip flooring, a folding seat, grab rails at the real points of support, a thermostatic mixer and clear space to approach. If the bathroom is very small, it is sometimes worth relocating the door or changing it to a sliding one to gain the centimetres needed.
Moving around inside. Wider doorways or sliding doors, removal of thresholds between rooms, continuous flooring without glare, and enough turning space at the key points. Much of this is achieved by rearranging, without extending anything.
Details that go unnoticed. Height of switches and controls, colour contrast between floor, wall and joinery for people with limited vision, enhanced lighting in corridors and stairs, and automation of the entrance door.
For accessibility works in residents’ associations there is a legal point worth knowing, because it changes the conversation at owners’ meetings: Spanish horizontal property law obliges the association to carry out the accessibility works required when requested by owners with a disability or over seventy years of age who live or work in the building, provided the cost does not exceed the limit the law sets once grants are deducted. It is not work that depends on everyone feeling like doing it.
There are also specific public grants for accessibility and barrier removal, both regional and national, which can cover a significant share. Deadlines and conditions change with each call, so the sensible approach is to check what is open when the work is being planned and prepare the technical documentation they require, which normally includes a detailed quote and a report.
We prepare the quote in the format those schemes usually ask for and in the form the owners’ meeting needs to vote on it, and we coordinate with the managing agent throughout the works.
Accessibility work we carry out regularly in Alicante and the province:
Three to five days if only the bath is replaced with the tray and the affected area retiled, and around two weeks for a full bathroom refit. There are one-day replacement systems on the market, but they usually leave a step or a surface-mounted tray that never quite becomes a genuinely accessible shower; if safety is the aim, a level-access installation is worth the extra days.
Not always: a ramp needs a gentle gradient, and that requires length. In small entrance halls there is not enough run, and an over-steep ramp is not just non-compliant, it is dangerous. In those cases the answer is a vertical platform lift, a stairlift or lowering the floor itself. We measure it and tell you what genuinely fits in your building.
Where it is requested by an owner with a disability or over seventy who lives or works in the building, horizontal property law requires the association to carry out the necessary accessibility works, up to the financial limit the law itself sets after deducting grants and subsidies. Above that amount an agreement is needed, although the requesting owner may cover the difference. It is best raised with a quote in hand so the meeting decides on facts.
Yes, there are usually accessibility and refurbishment schemes that include it, for both associations and individual owners, and some offer high percentages where there is a recognised disability. They change every year, so you have to look at what is open at the time. We prepare the quote with the breakdown they ask for and tell you what technical documentation is normally required.
The key points are clear turning space for a wheelchair, the clear width of the door (a sliding door or one opening outwards is better), lateral approach to the toilet, folding support rails at the correct height, a level-access shower with anti-slip flooring and taps that can be operated without effort. In premises open to the public these dimensions are a legal requirement; in a private home they are adapted to the person, which is what actually matters.
Yes, and often that is the sensible approach: start with whatever most restricts daily life, usually the bathroom and the access to the building, and leave the rest for later. We prioritise with you according to what currently creates most risk or difficulty, so every euro spent is noticed from the first day.