How to look after your adaptation

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Introduction
Your shower tray and doors
Your shower unit
Your scooter store
Your non-slip safety flooring
Your kitchen fittings
Your stairlift
Your specialist toilet
Your new doors
Contact us
Making a complaint
Our policy

Introduction

By now, the adaptation to your home should be finished. It has been designed to make your life easier and to help you to live independently in your home.

All the work we do is guaranteed for 12 months. If something goes wrong, you should phone us on 0800 521555 and we will tell you what we will do. You should report all maintenance and repair problems to our Woking Repairs Service on 0800 521555.

To help keep your adaptation in good working order, we have set out some advice on how to look after and maintain it. You should have fewer problems if you follow these simple rules.

Your shower tray and doors

Clean the shower trays and doors as often as possible. You can use your usual bathroom-cleaning products. After cleaning the shower tray and doors, always rinse them with water and wipe them with a damp cloth to remove any cleaning material that's left over.

Do not use strong or concentrated products such as bleach and scouring cream as these may discolour or damage the trays and doors.

Your shower unit

Clean the handset of the shower using a descaling solution for plastic kettles to prevent limescale from building up. Limescale reduces the flow of water from the handset. Put the shower head in a bowl with the recommended amount of descaling solution and leave it to soak overnight.

Never take off the shower unit's cover to do this. Only a qualified engineer should do this.

Your scooter store

Scooter stores are very simple to clean. Clean the walls and roof of the store with soapy water, and then rinse them thoroughly.

Your non-slip safety flooring

You should regularly clean and maintain all floor coverings. Your new floor is tough and long lasting. Here are a few useful hints to help it stay in good condition.

Protecting your floor against damage from furniture:

Put large plastic castors under any chair legs and the feet of any heavy appliances.
When you are moving furniture or a heavy appliance that has feet (such as a washing machine or freezer), slide a piece of hardboard or carpet underneath and put the appliance onto it so that none of the feet scrape across the floor.
Do not put hot items on the floor or use any sharp items on it.
The textured surface of non-slip flooring in shower rooms can hold a small amount of water after you have showered. You can either leave this to evaporate or wipe it up with a cloth or mop.

Cleaning:

Sweep up any pieces of grit and dirt as often as you can.
Wash the floor regularly with warm water and a mild non-scratch detergent.
Rinse the floor with clean warm water. Make sure the floor is dry before you walk on it.
Do not use strong detergents, harsh abrasive powders or wire-wool scouring pads, as they will damage the surface of your floor covering.
Always mop up any spillages as soon as you can to prevent them from soaking underneath the flooring and causing problems in the floor below.

Stains:

Avoid getting the following on your new floor covering as they can stain:

Shoe polish.
Hair dye and other preparations.
Some powder paints.
Wax crayons.
Bitumen or tar (this can be carried in on your shoes from freshly resurfaced roads and paths).
Some highly coloured foods such as ketchup.

Rubber staining:

Some types of rubber - such as that used as the backings for rugs and mats, or as protective feet for stools, as well as the soles on some shoes and slippers - can permanently stain your floor. They can leave yellow stains on your floor.

Cleaning products:

We recommend any anti-bacterial or all-purpose cleaner.
We do not recommend strong bleach and pine gel products.
Do not put polish on safety flooring, as you could slip on it.

Your kitchen fittings

You are responsible for taking care of your new kitchen. It is in your best interests to keep it clean. Here are some tips on the best ways to look after your kitchen:

Wipe up spillages as soon as possible. Do not leave anything leaking or damp in a cupboard or drawer; or on a worktop. If you do not wipe it quite quickly, it can soak into the chipboard and make it swell.
Clean surfaces by wiping them with a cloth dampened with water and a mild detergent. Do not use bleach.
Remove stains or stickiness with a household spray-type cleaner.
Don't put appliances which create a lot of heat or steam under wall units or over worktop joints.
Use vinegar and lemon juice to remove water marks from your sink. Don't use cream cleansers, abrasive powders, wire-wool or steel pads as these will spoil the surface of your sink and make it stain more easily.
Do not lean on cupboard doors or hang things on them, as this puts strain on the hinges and may even pull the doors off the hinges.
Do not overload shelves with things such as cans. This will strain the wall fixings and could make the cupboard fall off the wall.
Do not put hot pans, cigarettes and other hot things onto worktops.
Use a chopping board when you are cutting food. Do not chop directly on draining boards or worktops. This can damage the surface which will make it much harder to keep clean and hygienic, and may break the waterproof seal.
Don't leave unit doors and oven doors open. People can easily walk into them and hurt themselves.

Your stairlift

The material on your stairlift will resist most household stains, and you can wipe most marks off without any problem. Regularly clean the material with a damp soapy sponge or cloth, then wipe it with a damp clean cloth.

For marks that are difficult to remove, scrub them lightly with a soft brush. Do not use solvent cleaners, abrasives, detergents, bleaches, wax polishes or aerosol sprays.

Clean the rail with any spray-on cleaner designed to clean kitchen surfaces.

Your specialist toilet

Do not use products containing bleach. Bleach can discolour parts of the metal used within the toilet, including the spray arm. We recommend you use warm soapy water to clean your toilet.

Your new doors

Your new front or back door is designed to be easy to maintain. You will not need to paint them, but you should regularly clean the inside and outside of the door and frame. If you leave it too long, the dirt will begin to spoil the surface of the door.

You should try to do the following:

Wash the door and frame with warm soapy water on a soft cloth. Rub the frame thoroughly to remove the dirt and stains. Rinse with clean water to remove any cleaning solution and wipe down with a soft dry cloth.
Once you have cleaned the door, you can wax it occasionally with furniture polish or car wax.
If your door has a brass tread plate, this is pure brass and will need to be polished using a brass cleaner if you want it to stay bright.
All other ironmongery, including locks, handles, knockers, letter boxes and so on, are not pure brass and so should not need polishing. Again, a wash down with warm soapy water should be enough.

Please make sure that your front-door keys are always easy to find. If there was a fire, you could lose precious time looking for keys.

Contact us

You can contact Woking Repairs Service on 0800 521555.

Or, you can write to us at:

Woking Repairs Service
Unit 14A
Monument Way East
Woking
Surrey GU21 5YL

We are open from 8.30am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.

Making a complaint

We try to do all adaptations to your satisfaction, but sometimes things go wrong. If you want to complain about your adaptation, contact us and we will put you in touch with someone who can help.

Our policy

A copy of our policy "Adaptations to Council housing for disabled people" is available electonically or a paper copy can be obtained by contacting Tenant and Leaseholder Services on 01483 743830 or emailing them on T&L@woking.gov.uk