A doorway a wheelchairactually fits through.
Widened openings, new doorways, cavity sliders, and accessible replacements — the structural answer when the doorway itself is the obstacle.
The chair fits the room.It does not fit the door.
Standard doorways in older Australian houses give a clear opening well under what a wheelchair needs, and the clear opening is always narrower than the door — the frame, the stops, and the open door leaf itself all take a slice out of it. A doorway that measures fine on paper can still be one a chair cannot turn into.
Approaching at an angle makes it worse. Coming out of a hallway rather than straight on, a chair needs considerably more width to get through, which is why the bathroom door in the middle of a hall is so often the one that fails.
Widening is structural work. The architrave and frame come out, the opening is cut wider, the lintel is dealt with, and the wall, plaster, and paint are made good. It is a bigger job than anything on our minor door page and sometimes it is the only thing that works.
Accessible door solutionsfor every home.
Four different structural answers, and the right one depends on the wall as much as on the chair.
Door widening for wheelchair access
The existing opening cut wider to increase the clear width. The commonest request, and the one that makes a bathroom or bedroom reachable rather than merely closer.
A new door opening
Where the existing doorway is in the wrong place entirely. Forming a new opening — into a bedroom, a bathroom, or out to the garden — sometimes solves circulation that no amount of widening will.
Door reversal to gain space
Rehanging a door to swing the other way. It gives back the floor the door was sweeping, and it costs a fraction of a widening. Always worth pricing first.
Replacement doors and hardware
Swing doors, cavity sliders, external sliders, lever handles, and long-life seals — chosen so the finished doorway is usable rather than merely wide.
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Types ofsolutions.
Strategic changes to a doorway open up circulation and make a small room usable. These are the pieces a full door job is made of.
Door widening
Increasing the clear opening of an existing doorway, for swing doors, cavity sliders, or external sliders. Improves circulation and gives back floor space in small rooms.
Door replacement
A new door selected for how it operates rather than how it looks — swing, cavity slider, or external slider — to meet AS 1428.1 where it applies and to be workable one-handed.
New door opening
Planned and constructed where a new access point serves the layout better than the existing one, with the same door choices available.
Threshold covers
A level transition at the base of the new doorway, so the last thing between the two rooms is not a lip. Easy to leave out and immediately obvious when it is.
Reinstating paint and plaster
After any widening, reversal, or replacement the wall is patched, plastered, and painted so the room reads as finished rather than repaired. On this page — unlike the minor door work — making good IS part of the scope.
Moving light switches
A widened or reversed doorway frequently ends up covering a switch. Relocating it is electrical work, and it is priced in at design rather than discovered on the day.
Types ofdoors.
Three ways a door can operate, and the choice is usually decided by how much wall there is beside the opening.
Swing doors
The conventional door, easy to use and reliable, and the cheapest to fit. It needs somewhere to swing to — which is exactly what a small room does not have, and why reversal and widening so often go together.
Cavity sliders
The door slides into the wall, so it takes no floor space at all when open and none when closed. The best answer for a narrow room or a tight hallway, and the most involved to fit, because the wall has to be opened up to take the cavity.
External sliders
The door slides across the face of the wall on a track. Less work than a cavity slider and it needs a clear run of wall beside the opening. The usual answer for indoor-outdoor transitions and for walls that cannot be hollowed out.
Before you book,two things to know.
Price a reversal first
Rehanging the door to open the other way costs a fraction of a widening and very often buys the same usable space in a small room. We will tell you honestly if it would do — it is the cheaper job and it is frequently the right one.
What is in the wall decides the price
A load-bearing wall needs a new lintel. Plumbing, wiring, or a stud in the wrong place all change the work. That is settled at the drawings stage, which is why a widening cannot be quoted from a photograph.
Making good is in the scope here
Unlike the minor door work, a widening includes patching, plastering, and painting the affected wall. What it does not include is repainting the whole room to match a wall painted fifteen years ago.
It is permanent, and it needs permission if you rent
The wall is altered. If you rent, this needs the owner’s written agreement, not the agent’s verbal one — it is a structural change rather than a fitting.
Brochuresand guides.
The documents an occupational therapist, a plan manager, or a funding body usually asks us for. We are preparing these now — ring or email in the meantime and we will send what you need.
Product brochures
- Door widening and replacementComing soon
- Cavity and external sliding doorsComing soon
Specifications
- Clear opening widths for wheelchair accessComing soon
- Typical widened doorway detailComing soon
Quote request requirements
- Door widening — what we need to quoteComing soon
How the jobactually runs.
Draftsperson visit and design
The clear opening measured as it is, the approach angle checked with the chair that will actually use it, and what is in the wall established. The drawings state the clear width achieved, which is the figure a funding body wants.
Documentation and a fixed price
Drawings and a scope of works set out so a plan manager, case manager, or funding body can approve them without coming back to us. Funding is approved before anything starts.
Structural work
Frame and architrave out, the opening cut, a lintel installed where the wall is load-bearing, and any services in the way relocated.
Door, hardware, and making good
The new door hung or the slider installed, hardware fitted, threshold levelled, and the wall patched, plastered, and painted.
Warranty
The work is carried out by licensed tradespeople and backed by the relevant warranties. If something is not right, ring the same number you rang the first time.
If the door is the problemand the wall is not.
Often it is. A door that will not stay open, one that cannot be got past in an emergency, one with a lip at the threshold, or one swinging the wrong way are all fixed without touching the wall — and in an afternoon rather than a fortnight.
The minor door page covers all of it.
Questions
What people ask aboutdoor widening.
Frequently Asked Questions
How wide does a doorway need to be for a wheelchair?
Should I widen the door or reverse it?
Can any wall be widened?
Will you repaint the room afterwards?
Will the NDIS pay for door widening?
Can’t see your question? Call us on +61 3 8658 1358 — we’re happy to talk it through.
More from Vital Ease
The rest of whatwe do.
Let us make your homework for you.
Ready to start your modification journey? Contact our team.
Ready to make your home safer and more accessible? Our team is here to help from your first consultation through to the final handover. Let’s talk about what’s possible for your home.