grip for the elderly?

larry merlau

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Location
Delton, Michigan
what are your suggestions to use on a aged treated lumber deck that gets slick when wet for grip for there shoes?? have gotten it pressure washed with a touch of bleach to kill the fungus for awhile but we have snow up here and the grass carpet is out.. so whats your next best solution? thanks for your help
 
Larry,

We used to live in Edmonton, and had front steps that were wooden. The previous owner had stapled down indoor/outdoor carpet for grip, which we did not care for. We ripped up the carpet and painted the steps. However, rain on painted wood (let alone snow) is a recipe for broken legs!

In the paint section of the store we picked up a can of grit - sorry, don't know what the name is, but the staff there should know about it. I think it is mostly crushed walnut shells. How it works is you stir it into a paint can, and then just paint it on. It needs to be stirred frequently, to keep the grit in suspension. It worked very well for us - it lasted at least 4 years.

hope this helps
...art
 
Grip for the ederly heck, our first rented home after college was a trailer with a deck, frost was a killer. Loved the look of that deck but found out quick I didn't want wooden steps for a main door to my permanent home. I don't know how many times I fell on those steps or the slick bricks they used for a walkway that had a slope to it! Paint and spread sand, worked good for us. The high school has on their stairs, the self adhesive gripper strips, don't know how well they would stick on the aged wood or outside.
 
Hi Larry, :wave:
Just a thought, handrails too are very important. For my aged parents I put up many. I found that a tree branch with the bark skinned off is a perfect handrail. I went looking for the length I wanted at about 2" to 1 1/4" in diameter. I would lop off the offshoot limbs about 1/2" from the main stem, rasp it so as to eliminate the sharp edges left from the cut, then mount it like a regular handrail. The nubs help them get a stop when their grip might be failing and the smaller size is better for the tiny older hands. They thanked me more times for that than for most other things I did.:dunno: Just a thought...
 
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