My Father in law is now having to use a wheel chair.

Their front door threshold steps down outside about 7". I have read that wheel chair ramps should be 12" of run for every 1" of rise. However the usable straight run of the walkway is 6 feet long - will that make too steep of a ramp?

I was planning on using 3-4 2x8 cut at a diagonal from corner to corner forming an extremely long triangle as the ramp support.

Sheathed with 1/2" ply (Exterior grade/pressure treated) which should butt up nearly even with the threshold, painted and using a garage floor epoxy mixed with sand for the top surface.

One side of the ramp will be against a built out deck with a picket fence like "wall". the other side will be against the house for 2'6" the remaining 3'6" is a flower bed at the lower half of the ramp - do I need to install a balustrade/handrail or will a wheel guide about 2-4 inches high along the exposed side be enough?

Lastly, I assume that the nose of the ramp gets the most wear and tear, would heavy gauge flashing wrapped over the nose work or should I aim for angle iron-like material?

The unit will be sitting on top of the concrete walkway.

Since they rent the house I can not do any permanent changes. Will this design plan get us through 2-3 years (most likely less)?

Your plan sounds like a good one given the circumstances. As you state the 6' slope vs the recommended slope will be a little steeper than guidelines but I believe these are written for a person to wheel themselves up or down unassisted by others. Given that it's a rental property you'll be making the most of what you have.. No one should fault you for that.
2-4" should be enough to keep the wheels on the ramp.
Thin aluminum--carpet bar or stairway nose should be enough for 2-3 years use and still look nice.. Angle iron may rust.

They may never say it but your efforts will be appriciated by your family and be much less painful than bumping up the stairs with a tiltec back wheel chair ... good luck.

Well it was "easy" to build. Relatively easy. Instead of going with angled cuts on 2x lumber I used two bits of 1x for the "sides" and ran 2x members side to side set every 16 inches starting starting up right then as I ran out of room setting them every 12" running side by side.

I used lots and lots of exterior grade wood glue too - bound and screwed together.

I upped the 1/2 ply to 3/4 inch ply, instead of painting it with sand I painted it and found 36" wide rubberized runner which I adhered and stapled to the ramp.

The father in law took it for a run, he managed to wheel himself up the ramp with little problem.

That's nice to hear! If that was easy to build, I wonder why many public places don't have ramps?


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Sandy
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