Aging in place in Powell

We match across Knoxville and the surrounding East Tennessee communities, so the contractor you are introduced to is one whose crews actually work your part of the county.

Permits, utilities and local rules for Aging in Place work in Powell

Powell is unincorporated, so everything is a Knox County file: the building permit for a widened doorway or a ramp comes from the county Codes Administration and Enforcement office, and the water and sewer account comes from the Hallsdale-Powell Utility District. HPUD has run water and wastewater across north Knox County and into Union County and parts of Anderson County for seventy years, and Powell sits in the middle of its service area, which is why a homeowner here deals with one district rather than a city utility. For accessibility work the relevant fact is the housing, and Powell is one of the most consistent pockets on this list: small single-storey houses on small lots near the crossroads, built through the 1950s to the 1970s as modest family homes, each with one or two baths, a tub and shower combination in a five-by-eight layout, and a doorway that measures 28 to 30 inches in most of them. Further out along Emory Road and Beaver Ridge the lots are larger and the houses newer, with grade changes and long driveways that make a ramp a length question rather than a slope-only question.

Municipal reference: Hallsdale-Powell Utility District

Getting an accessibility contractor out to Powell

Powell sits between Clinton Highway, US-25W, on its western side and the ridges to the east, on the two roads that carry most of the traffic through it: Clinton Highway, which runs north-west from Knoxville toward Clinton, and Emory Road, TN-131, which runs east through the community to the interstate. Beaver Ridge Road, Brickey Road, Powell Drive and Schaad Road fill in the grid, and Interstate 75 crosses the eastern edge with the Emory Road interchange as the closest way in from the interstate. That position makes the community one of the easiest on this list to schedule: a crew working anywhere in Knoxville, Halls or West Knoxville can usually add a Powell address into the same run rather than treating it as a separate trip. What slows a job down here is not distance but the lot and the grade. The older streets near the crossroads were laid out tight, driveways are short, and there is often no room for a dumpster and a delivery at once; further out the driveway is long and the question becomes how far a ramp or a walkway has to run to meet the grade at the front door, because Powell's streets climb away from the creek bottoms on both sides.

What Powell's housing stock means for aging in place

Powell's older streets are the clearest example of the mid-century East Tennessee accessibility problem. The houses are single storey, compact, with one bathroom in most of them and two in the larger plans, and the main bath is a tub-and-shower combination in a five-by-eight space behind a door of 28 to 30 inches. Floors are hardwood or tile, with vinyl in the kitchens and baths, and the floor sits either on a slab or over a crawlspace depending on the year. There is almost always a step somewhere - down from the carport or garage, up to a raised front porch, or a short interior run between the living level and a converted back room. Because many of these walls are plaster over frame or masonry, widening a bathroom door is a matter of cutting, framing and re-finishing, and grab-bar blocking has to be added because the original wall rarely has any where a bar is wanted. The newer houses further out are different again: larger single-storey plans, a garage at grade, and ramps that are decided by the rise at the door and the 1:12 rule rather than by the layout inside the house.

What accessibility work does a Powell home need most?

Which Aging in Place services can we match in Powell, TN?

How much does aging in place work cost in Powell, TN?

Sources

Aging in Place tools & calculators

Aging in Place resources