How Do You Know If Your Builder Can Actually Design an In-Law Suite for a Walker or Wheelchair?

By Buz Artiano, BuildX | September 2026

Watch: The Marra Family In-Law Suite | Full 4-Month Build Story | BuildX

Every contractor you call will say yes, they build accessible. Nobody answers that question with a no. So you sit down with a couple different contractors and they both seem very confident. But when the meeting is over you can't tell if they have real experience laying out a bathroom around a wheelchair or if they're about to use your money and to learn how to do it on your project. But if it's not done right, the person living there will struggle every day and there's no alternative option for them.

My name is Buz Artiano, founder of BuildX. We've designed and built dozens of ADUs and in-law additions all over Massachusetts, but most of our jobs have been on the South Shore and in Plymouth County. We handle everything from the design and permitting to the construction. So the same company that draws your bathroom is the company that builds and installs it and pulls the permit at your town hall. It's also the same company who will give you an answer on septic capacity and the lot coverage limits your town enforces. Accessible design isn't an upgrade you have to pay for with us. It shows up inside ordinary in-law projects, because the need for accessibility is the reason a lot of families want to build an ADU in the first place.

Dan and Elaine Marra are BuildX clients. We built the addition they now call home, and the first meeting we had was all about whether the space would work for a family member with a walker or a wheelchair. Elaine Marra had already met with another contractor before she spoke with us. What she noticed when she compared the two is something you can ask any builder about, in the first meeting, before anything has been drawn.

Of course we want to share stories of customers that had a great experience with us, but we want to talk about Elaine's experience because she ran this test on us while she was still considering using one of our competitors, and because the test works no matter which company ends up passing it.

How Can I Tell Which Builder Actually Knows Accessible Design?

Listen for what the builder brings up on their own before you ask. That's basically the whole thing, and it's easy to add that to a conversation you were going to have anyway.

Here is how Elaine Marra described the meeting she had with us:

And here is the other contractor she interviewed, in the same breath:

Notice that she didn't describe a portfolio, a certification, a price, or a reference list. She is describing the order things went in. The dimensions were brought up and defined before she even asked for them.

A builder who has experience in laying out accessible bathrooms is familiar enough with the limitations that they have exact numbers and dimensions at the ready because they are the first thing that has to be checked against your existing walls. When you're dealing with an experienced builder and you bring up the shower, they will have dimensions and measurements ready to give you. A builder who doesn't have experience building accessible bathrooms will not have those numbers for you, they will give you generic reassurances instead. Reassurance costs a builder nothing to give, and people tend to mix that up with actual competence.

The One Protection You Actually Have on a Private Home

Massachusetts does have an accessibility code. It's called 521 CMR, written and enforced by the state Architectural Access Board, and it sets the rules for entrances, bathrooms, and circulation in buildings that are open to the public. Things like stores, restaurants, hotels, medical offices, and apartment buildings. A single-family house that is having an addition built on to it doesn't fall under those rules. You can read what the code covers at mass.gov.

That's a helpful thing to understand before you hire anybody. The building inspector who signs off on your in-law suite is checking things like framing, emergency exit routes, insulation, and other safety things. Nobody is actually measuring whether the bathroom door swings clear of a walker, because on a private home, there's no requirement to check those things. The knowledge of the people who design and draw your plan is the only safeguard you have.

What Should a Builder Bring Up Before You Ask?

Your builder should volunteer information on these 5 bullet points when you bring up the issues of a wheelchair or a walker.

• How the shower is entered, and whether the threshold has to be stepped over
• How wide the doorways and hallways are
• Where a walker or a chair can turn around inside the bathroom
• Which wall the toilet and the sink will be against and if there is blocking behind that wall to install properly secured grab bars.
• How the floor changes at every transition between rooms, and whether there is a lip or not

A builder who has done this work before will lay out most of those things without being asked. They should also ask probing questions like who is the space for, does that person walk behind the walker or get pushed in a wheelchair, does there need to be space for a caregiver in the bathroom as well. Those questions are how you know that numbers and dimensions are carefully chosen instead of guessed.

We are not going to print a clearance figure here for you to bring to your next builder meeting. The right dimension will change depending on what equipment the person will be using for mobility, and whether a caregiver has to be in the room at the same time. A builder who gives you one set of numbers that covers all situations has likely not done this type of work before. Ask that they draw the numbers into the plan, where they can be checked against the wall you have.

Why Does Your Back Door Matter as Much as Your Front Door?

Dan Marra described what got built:

Both entries are that way. Not just one accessible entrance at the front with a ramp folded around the side of the house.

We level both entries whenever the site allows it, and that's because it gets a lot of traffic. The front door is the door visitors use. The back or side door is the door the household uses, because it is the one closest to the driveway, the trash cans, and the car. If you only make the front of the house accessible, then the person with the walker has to go the long way around every time they go into the house. That decision has to be made while the foundation height and the exterior grade, meaning the ground level of the doorway, are still just a drawing, no work has been done. Once the addition is framed and concrete has been poured, the door heights can't be changed. That means the only option left is a ramp bolted onto a finished building.

It's actually very simple. Ask how you get in the back door. If the answer only covers the front entrance, that's a red flag.

What If Your Family Does Not Need the Walker Yet?

Dan Marra put the family's actual question plainly:

That is the question most families are wondering. Mobility equipment isn't needed right now and nobody wants to build a hospital room for somebody who is still mobile and independent. If you're stuck on that same question right now, that's exactly where the Marras were when we met them.

You don't have to predict the future, you just sort the decisions. Ask every builder on your list to split the accessible features into two categories: the ones that can't be changed once the walls close up, and the ones that can be added later in one weekend. Door widths, hallway width, the shower threshold, the floor transitions, and the grade at both entries cannot be added later. Grab bars, handles, and a shower seat can all be added later on, as long as somebody screwed solid blocking into the walls during construction. Blocking is the wood a grab bar has to screw into.

A builder who's done this work will sort that list for you on the spot. A builder who hasn't will give you the accessible features as "upgrades" you can buy whenever you're ready, which is not true because the infrastructure has to be done at the framing stage. Dan Marra's summary of the finished space was that everything was pretty much designed for her individually. That's how things work out when the decisions are made before construction starts.

Where Design-Build Is the Wrong Fit for Accessible Work

We build in-law suites and ADUs, so you would think we'd always recommend building one. But the truth is, a lot of families are not in the right situation to hire us, and it's cheaper for everyone when we figure that out on the first call:

• If the need is medically complex and requires a lot of equipment, with a ceiling lift track or a specific transfer setup in the room, bring in a certified aging-in-place specialist, meaning a designer credentialed specifically in mobility and aging design, or an occupational therapist, to shape the plan before a builder does. We work with them, but not in place of them.
• If you are redoing an existing bathroom instead of adding new space, a remodeler who does nothing but bathrooms is a better use of your money than hiring a company that builds whole homes.
• If you are on a very tight timeline, like weeks, new construction will never be done in time, and a temporary arrangement inside the existing house would be a better option.

How Will You Run This Test on Your Shortlist?

Two contractors sat with the same family and were asked about the same space. Both of them could have said yes. One started describing the bathroom and the walk-in shower before anyone asked, and the other did not. It costs you nothing to find that out and you should always do that before you sign anything.

Bring the person the space is for if you can. Say the words walker or wheelchair, then stop talking and let the builder fill the silence. Then you'll have your answer.