I would definitely install 'fake' or laminate hardwood floors for two reasons: 1. they are very easy to care for and wipe clean with a little soap and water. 2. hardwood floors are most likely what is in her long term memory as they were the primary floor covering when most current AD folks were younger. Familiarity of the environment, as it relates to older memories, helps the AD person to feel most secure. Check with your local large hardware chain for the best prices and least care options. I would suggest getting stick on treads for the bathroom; these are usually placed in the bath tub to keep someone from slipping but can be used quite successfully on the floor with the same purpose. You are so right about not using throw rugs; they are quite hazardous for the dementia person who is less than sure-footed! Find Memory Care Near You This is a pricey solution, but - an ideal covering might be CORK flooring - the type with a ready-made finish. It comes in sections like laminate floors.

Why is it good? - It is as easy to clean as laminate floors or vinyl. - it is soft - so that it a person falls, they are less likely to be hurt. -it feels comfortable to walk on. I design healthcare and senior living facilities and over the past few years started applying these materials to private residences, helping seniors age in place. I recommend a good no-wax vinyl floor and a wood grain is great. Be a savvy buyer and make sure that the "slip resistant coefficient" is 6.7-7.0. That will not only prevent falls, but also keeps the floor from becoming hard to clean. Avoid plastic laminate and cork floors if there are excessive spills. Also, be sure there is a contrast between floors and walls, as well as cabinets/countertops to differentiate the planes from each other. Myra at Aging-In-Place Home Solutions I used to design hospitals, medical offices and nursing homes. You should look at true linoleum floors, like Forbo's Marmoleum. It comes in sheet and tile and contains no PVC which they are saying is the next asbestos.

Linoleum is a natural material that is durable, easy to clean and is anti-bacterial, anti mold. Very good for people with allergies as well...dust does not cling to it. Forbo also has a product called Flotex which is very good too...cleans like a resilient floor, but have some acoustical value...used in a lot of Long Term Care Facilities...used in all types of spaces there except for the toilet rooms. I agree with mlk63105 and getting vinyl flooring with a wood-grain look to it. The problem with laminate flooring is that if you don't clean up a liquid spill quickly, the moisture seeps into the cracks between laminate boards causing them to buckle. (My pets have ruined all my laminate floors.) Vinyl flooring is easy clean-up, and easier on the feet than hard tile also. And if something breakable gets dropped on a vinyl surface, there's less chance of it shattering than being dropped on tile.(Reuters Health) – - Special impact-absorbing flooring reduced fall injuries by nearly 60 percent in a new study of women in Swedish nursing homes, though the soft floors may also be linked to more falls, according to the authors.

“Falls are extremely common in nursing home residents, approximately 70 percent are fallers and they fall on average three to four times per year,” said lead author Johanna Gustavsson of Karlstad University in Sweden. “The consequences are often very serious, for example resulting in hip fractures or head injuries.”Black Top Mint 2013 Prom Dresses One Shoulder ChiffonIn the U.S., one of every three adults over age 65 falls each year, with about one quarter of those sustaining moderate to severe injuries that “make it hard for them to get around or live independently, and increase their risk of early death,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The direct medical costs of falls by seniors are estimated at $34 billion annuallyProm Dress Shop Sydney, according to CDC.Best Duct For Bathroom Exhaust Fan

The idea of reducing force to reduce the risk of injuries in an accident is by no means new, it has been tested in many fields like traffic and sports, Gustavsson said.But impact-absorbing floors have not been widely tested, and the reduction in injury rate in the new study was greater than she and her coauthors expected, Gustavsson told Reuters Health by email.The researchers collected fall and injury data from a nursing home in Sweden with 60 apartments divided into six wards. Six of the 60 apartments had New Zealand-manufactured Kradal brand 12-millimeter flexible impact absorbing tiles installed. This flooring is not approved for wet areas and was not installed in any bathrooms.The half-inch thick tiles have a spongy polyurethane/polyurea interior. According to the manufacturer, they reduce the force of an impact by 65-85 percent, compared to concrete floors.Between late 2011 and early 2014, 57 female nursing home residents with an average age of 85 participated in the study, 39 of whom fell at least once.

Nursing home staff recorded 254 falls on regular flooring and 77 on impact absorbing flooring. Almost 17 percent of falls on the special flooring resulted in an injury, compared to 30 percent of falls on regular flooring, according to results in Injury Prevention. Most injuries were relatively minor, with between one and two percent resulting in hip fracture. Major injuries were equally common on both types of flooring, but minor injuries were less common on the soft floors. Although fall injuries were less common on the impact absorbing floors, falls seemed to be more common. “If indeed flooring was in less than 10 percent of the areas, then 10 percent of the falls would have occurred on the impact absorbing areas, but more than twice that many were on the impact absorbing floors,” said Dr. Peter M. Layde of the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, who was not a part of the new study.“It raises the possibility that softer flooring might actually increase risk of falling,” Layde told Reuters Health by phone.

However, in this and other studies, there is a chance that nursing home staff moved patients who were more likely to fall into the softer flooring areas, Gustavsson said.“We have indications that this was also the case in our study with staff moving elderly that were prone to fall to the areas with the special flooring in order to protect them, as they perceived that the flooring ‘worked’,” she said. “This was out of our control and nothing we could (or wanted) to prevent.”M. Clare Robertson of the Dunedin School of Medicine at the University of Otago in New Zealand was involved with the initial testing of Kradal, and found no difference in standing, balance, walking or stability compared with standard vinyl or carpeted floors, she told Reuters Health by email.Over the three-year period of the study, only six women fell on the impact absorbing floors and three fell on both types of floor, which means only nine individuals fell on the new flooring, Layde said. Such a small group limits how much the results can be interpreted, he said.