Everything You Need to Know about Wheelchair Ramps in New York

Living Free Home
4 min readMar 21, 2017

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Wheelchair ramps assist wheelchair and scooter users as well as people pushing strollers and carts to easily access multistoried buildings. This equipment helps overcome the challenge of ascending and descending the stairways in your home or workplace. The number of people depending on wheelchairs for their mobility is increasing year after year. There is an estimated 3.3 million wheelchair users in the United States. So a ramp installation is crucial these days to ensure the safety and convenience of this group.

Most commercial ramps are required to meet the wheelchair ramp specification, code and handicap access guidelines provided by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) whereas residential handicap ramps are not required to be compliant with ADA guidelines. According to the Fair Housing Act and Fair Housing Amendments Act , landlords must allow disabled tenants to install a ramp to their living unit or common areas, at their expense. Ramps are usually installed at the steps leading to the front or back entry doors, or from your garage into your home, on the threshold of a room, or at the side door or rear door of a vehicle. In the United States, about 98% of public transit buses are equipped with wheelchair accessible ramps.
Wheelchair ramps are generally made of aluminum, steel, wooden and rubber material. Leading accessibility equipment companies in New York provide permanent, portable and DIY modular ramps. They even custom design commercial ramps for your home or business. You can also rent modular ramps to meet any temporary requirements you may have.

Permanent Ramps

>>Aluminum Series

• Maximum carrying capacity of 800 lbs.
• Extremely strong, durable, and reliable.
• Maintenance-free and recyclable.
• A 2” safety curb on the two sides of the ramp prevents the wheelchairs from rolling off.
• Skid-resistant aluminum tread surface prevent the users from slipping and falling.
• Easily installed within hours.
• Code-compliant mesh design allows natural drainage, yet restricting small objects from passing through.
• Eliminate the formation of puddles, and will not rust or rot.
• Environment-friendly device.
• Less deflection of the ramp surface.

>>Steel Series

• Affordable and come with a three year manufacturer’s warranty.
• All components are coated with a durable powder-coated finish which makes them stronger than painted steel ramps.
• Can accommodate 800pounds of weight capacity.
• Mesh design allows natural drainage.
• Prevents formation of puddles.
• Aluminum parts are included, eliminating high maintenance issues.
• Modular design permits them to fit perfectly anywhere irrespective of the configuration.
• Textured finish for slip resistance.

>>Wooden Series

• Made of kiln-dried, premium pressure-treated southern yellow pine wood.
• As pressure-treated wood is used for constructing a wooden ramp,it protects the wood from insect, microorganism and fungal decay. Moreover, it can withstand various climatic conditions.
• Adequate gap between each wooden board enables natural drainage as well as natural expansion and contraction.
• Quickly installed within hours.

>>Portable Ramps–A portable ramp is an ideal solution for wheelchair and scooter users to immediately access steps, vehicles, and raised landings. It is durable, light-weight and can be carried around effortlessly. The most significant feature of this wheelchair ramp is that by removing two hinge pins, it can be separated into two lightweight sections, each with their own carrying handle. This makes storage and transportation much easier.

Diverse Portable Wheelchair Ramps

• Suitcase Ramps — Featuring a single-fold design, these can be used on your stairs, for your cars and trucks, and for other low to moderate rises.

• Aluminum and Rubber Threshold Ramps — They are placed on the threshold of a room letting wheelchair or scooter users to easily access doorways, sliding glass doors, shower or even raised landings. Ramps made of both aluminum and rubber materials are available.

• Multifold Ramps–These can be folded like a suitcase and can accommodate wheelchairs and scooters with various wheel configurations. It can be installed at the rear door of utility trailers, SUVs, and vans. They are stable and to ensure safety, safety DVD and steel security pins are included. A safety guide provided indicates whether ramp is on a safe slope.

• Solid Wheelchair Ramps–This equipment can comfortably hold 850 pounds of weight. It is a solid one-piece aluminum wheelchair ramp that can accommodate wider chairs.

• Wheelchair Ramps for Vans, SUVs and Trucks–These foldable wheelchair ramps are designed to help load wheelchairs or scooters into and out of transport vehicles through a side door or rear door. With a carrying capacity of 400lbs, these can accommodate wheelchairs and scooters with various wheel configurations.

Wheelchair ramps with top lip extension (TLE) are a practical option as the top lip extension clears the bumpers of SUVs and vans. You can increase the reach of the ramp by extending the top lip transition plate from 3″ to 9″.

>> DIY Modular Ramps –You can set up a solid surface aluminum, open mesh aluminum, open mesh steel, pressure-treated modular ramp on your own. A modular ramp kit comprises all parts of the ramp, as well as a ramp installation guide so that you can build a ramp ‘out of the box.’

You can purchase wheelchair ramps in New York from a reliable home accessibility equipment dealer. They can provide support at all steps right from choosing a product of your choice to its cost-effective professional installation and continuous maintenance.

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Living Free Home

Living Free Home is your local New Jersey provider of home accessibility equipment: stair lifts, modular ramps, portable ramps, wheel chair lifts, and more.