Arash, Amir, Nisio and other Summit Contractors team members created a most wonderful, accessible, safe, and beautiful bathroom for my mother, a senior citizen. They created a walk-in shower without any curb to eliminate the trip-and-fall hazard, which my mother's old bathtub presented to her. Amir built a sloping floor for the shower area out of wooden planks, and Nisio set the shower-floor tiles in such a way so that the water would flow into the linear shower drain and away from the walls. Nisio waterproofed the shower floor, walls, shampoo niche, and window edges both with whole-sheet Kerdi membranes and with RedGard painted over the Kerdi-membrane seams and all over the Kerdi membrane on the shower floor. This double waterproofing helps minimize the chance of leaks into the floor below my mother's bathroom. They installed the linear drain away from my mother's walking area to eliminate the chance of her tripping on the shower drain itself. They slopped the window sill and the shampoo niche in such away so that water pools off them towards the linear drain instead of sitting on top of them. They installed Dal tiles with a new StepWise technology on the bathroom floor. These 6" x 6" floor tiles are slip-resistant even when wet. They eliminated the door curb between the bathroom and the adjacent room, creating a seamless transition between the adjacent room, the bathroom's sink-and-toilet area, and the shower area, to help prevent slips and falls. They installed wooden grab-bar supports between the studs inside the walls (prior to putting up drywalls), in order to install the grab bars in a safe way, as it is unsafe to install grab bars without in-wall wooden supports. They installed custom-made Safe T Bars with GripTight technology that allows a person to grip the grab bars firmly even with wet and soapy hands. They added silicone around the grab-bar-wall connections and wall and niche corners inside the shower area in order to prevent leaks into the wall and damage to the drywall behind the tiles. They installed the grab bars at just the right height comfortable for my mother of 34" from the floor, with the exception of the toilet L-shaped grab bar whose horizontal arm is 27" from the floor. They also installed a Palazzani shower set with thermostatic temperature control and a red safety valve that their plumber programmed to be at just the right setting of water temperature most comfortable for my mother. The red safety valve prevents senior citizens (and any children, too) from getting scalded all over their bodies by hot water whilst in the shower. They installed the shower controls closer to the shower door for easy access by a caregiver or a PSW and the handheld shower head closer to the shower bench where my mother sits inside the shower. Even though this installation of controls on opposite sides of the water output was a little tricky, they still did it for us. They also installed wooden supports inside the shower ceiling and a 24" x 24" Juno rain shower above my mother's shower bench. This large rain shower has LED lights that turn blue when the water is cold, green when the water is warm and comfortable, and red when the water is hot. Summit created a shampoo niche and posted a hook for my mother's handheld shower head very close to her shower bench, so that she has easy access both to the handheld shower head and to her shampoo for the greatest possible independence, if she wishes to shower herself. The hose of the handheld shower head is extra long (90") for easier use, and its hook is positioned in such a way so as to eliminate the risk that my mother could trip on the shower hose or that it would be in the way of her grasping her grab bars. There is a second hook for the handheld shower head to make this shower head easier to reach by either my mother or a caregiver assisting her. Summit installed a Tornado Body Dryer so that my mother need not use towels nor bend down to dry herself after a shower. The Tornado Body Dryer has a special GFCI breaker attached to the electrical panel and is based on air technology, so it is safely installed inside the shower area, with no risk of electrocution. A 240V line had to be added for the body dryer, in order to make it work, as it requires above-110V electricity. They got Ninja Glass to put up a nice, thick, safe shower glass and to mount a beveled-edge custom-size mirror in my mother's bathroom. The shower-glass door is extra-wide and with a one-way swing to ease my mother's access to the shower area. Ninja Glass added Lexel and door waterproofing to prevent water from escaping out of the shower area. They also added a double-sided shower-door handle with curved edges to eliminate the risk of my mother hitting herself on a sharp handle corner. Summit Contractors also cut some special decorative tiles, including Italian flower-design tiles and a tile mural of Botticelli's painting "The Birth of Venus," one of my mother's favourite paintings, 's make my mother's bathroom more beautiful. This fine tile-cutting work was largely the work of Nisio, Summit's expert tiler. Nisio also installed a flower tile-frame for my mother's vanity mirror and flower boarders for her bathroom window and two of her three niches. Summit Contractors also installed a large farmhouse sink in my mother's bathroom that is easier for her to use than her previous standard small bathroom sink. The large sink is also practically flood-proof, as it has a large drain with a large opening and a WaterSense Moen faucet. At its highest water flow, the water stays on the bottom of the sink at the same low level of only a few millimetres, without overflowing, even if anyone were to forget to shut the sink faucet off, due to the largeness of the sink and its drain. Summit attached a granite vanity top that is beautiful and easy to clean and that has rounded bullnose edges to prevent my Mom from hitting herself on a sharp corner. They also installed a special electrical Toto toilet that has a flushing mechanism that flushes the toilet automatically each time a person gets off the toilet, without any need to press a flush lever, although there is a lever, too. This toilet has a "Washlet" bidet seat that can cleanse and dry a person after each use of the toilet for better hygiene. There is a remote control for the Washlet functions. The toilet's seat lifts up automatically as a person comes near the toilet and also closes automatically after each use of the toilet. The toilet seat can be even set on a warm setting to stay warm during the winter, although this setting is optional. This automatic toilet is of great help to my mother. Summit installed a Dyson hand dryer for my mother, which, like the body dryer, required a 240V line. It dries hands quickly in under a minute. Summit also built a niche for my mother's small towels and a niche for her garbage can, to keep her garbage can out of her walking path. They reversed my mother's bathroom entrance door so that it swings out of the bathroom instead of into it to maximize the maneuvering room she has inside the bathroom. The bathrobe hook is very close to the bathroom entrance so that my mother need not be searching for her bathrobe again - it is no longer hiding behind any door as the door hinges have been reversed. My mother wanted them to switch the places of her sink and her toilet so that her toilet would be closer to her bathroom entrance. Summit and their plumber did the necessary plumbing work and made this switch as she wished. A powerful Panasonic ceiling fan was installed to help suck steam and air moisture out of the bathroom quicker than her previous weak fan. This will help prevent the ceiling mildew problem she used to have in the past. The fan is activated by a humidistat whenever the air moisture reaches a certain level, and deactivated by the humidistat whenever it drops beneath that level. The bathroom ceiling and vanity lights are activated by a motion sensor as soon as my mother walks into her bathroom so that she does not need to worry about searching for the light switch in the dark nor stumbling through the dark when she goes to the bathroom at night. GFCI switches ensure proaction against electrician for the entire bathroom. There is one L-shaped grab bar right by the toilet to help her sit on and off the toilet. The shower bench has arms of its own for better support when she sits on and gets up off the bench. It is made of teak, which is resistant to water. Summit's painter painted her ceiling, door, and door trims beautifully with semi-gloss Benjamin Moore paint. My mother is extremely happy with her new bathroom, and I am extremely pleased with all of Summit's work. They were extremely patient with us, as it took me much time to find all the special materials for my Mom's new bathroom for her current and foreseeable future needs. They were extremely responsive, answering all my questions, replying to us always, extremely cooperative, extremely kind and helpful. They provided us with liability and WSIB insurance and a warranty on their work. They offered us an extremely fair price for the great work they did and the many fine details and alterations they attended to. They were patient with us and went out of their way to ensure everything was suitable for my mother. I could not have found a more wonderful team to create a splendid bathroom for my Mom. She will enjoy it and make use of for years to come, quite possibly for the rest of her life. I am deeply grateful to Arash and his whole team of Summit Contractors, who helped us with this complex project, and hence, I could not rate them nor recommend them more highly. They were far more responsive and helpful than anyone else we previously turned to for help and quotes. In the end, Amir even installed a grab bar by my mother's front entrance to help her with stepping into and out of her home, even though this was outside the scope of the bathroom work. Arash even helped me when I had a personal emergency, by referring me to a great professional who helped me, even though this was not his obligation nor part of the bathroom work. Thank you so much, Summit Contractors! My Mom and I wish you all the very best and will remain grateful to you for life!
