Seating for Senior Living and Healthcare: What to Specify

Seating for senior living and healthcare has to do things restaurant seating does not. It has to be easy to get out of, survive cleaning protocols that would destroy a normal finish, and hold up to residents who may lean on it heavily as they stand. Specify it like restaurant furniture and it will disappoint on all three counts.

Getting out of the chair is the whole design problem

A resident does not sit down carefully and stand up smoothly. They lower themselves the last few inches, and they push up on the arms. That has direct consequences:

• Arms should extend far enough forward to push up from. An arm that stops short of the seat front gives nothing to press against at the moment it is needed.
• Seat height matters more than usual. Too low and standing is hard; too deep and the resident slides forward before finding their feet. A firmer cushion is easier to rise from than a soft one, even though the soft one feels better in the showroom.
• The chair must not tip or slide when weight goes onto one arm. Frame stability under off-centre load is the test, not static weight rating.

Available on request

Several things we do not stock as standard are available on request, and they exist specifically for this market:

• Bariatric and higher weight-rated frames. Our products are tested to hold up to 400 lbs as standard, and on request we will test a product to whatever weight limit a project requires.
• Bleach-cleanable vinyls. Necessary where infection control protocols call for bleach solutions. A standard vinyl will discolour and eventually break down under them.
• Moisture-barrier seat construction. A barrier under the upholstery stops liquid reaching the foam. Without it, a single incident can write off the cushion, and the smell arrives before the failure does.
• Front casters with rear glides on dining arm chairs. The chair rolls forward when tilted for repositioning but sits still under load. Staff can move a resident to the table without lifting, and the chair does not wander during the meal.

Upholstery: bring your own specification

Healthcare and senior living projects usually arrive with very specific upholstery requirements — antimicrobial finishes, particular cleaning-agent tolerances, specific flammability documentation. In practice it is usually best for the customer to supply COM that meets their own standards, rather than trying to match a house range to a protocol. We accept COM and will confirm the material works on the frames you have chosen; see our COM guide for how that process runs.

All our products, including foam and upholstery materials, meet CAL TB 117-2013.

Construction to look for

Almost all our wood products use mortise-and-tenon joinery with very few bolted connections, and our metal products are welded rather than bolted. This matters more here than anywhere: bolted connections loosen under repeated off-centre loading, and a loose chair in a dining room full of residents is a fall risk, not just a maintenance item. Frames are tested internally to comply with ANSI/BIFMA standards, and product-specific testing is available on request if your specification requires documentation.

Dining rooms, lounges and common areas

A senior living community is several rooms with different requirements. Dining wants arm chairs that move easily and clean fast. Lounges and common rooms want a mix of seat heights, so residents with different mobility can all find something usable — a room furnished entirely in low, deep lounge chairs excludes the people most likely to be sitting in it. See lounge chairs and sofas and arm chairs.

Try it before you buy it

This is the category where a sit test matters most, and where the person who should try the chair is not the person specifying it. Our Sample Loan Program provides up to two complimentary chair or stool samples on projects of 10 or more pieces, with shipping both ways covered, on a 60-day loan. Put the sample in the actual dining room and watch residents use it.

Related

Healthcare and senior living furniture · COM and COL · BIFMA certification · Upholstered chairs

Specifying for a community? Contact your local sales rep or a project manager or administrator in our office. Send us the protocol requirements and we will tell you what we can build to them.