How to Widen a Doorway for Wheelchair Access
A standard interior door is 28–30 inches wide — wide enough for most people to walk through without a second thought, and too narrow for most wheelchairs and many walkers. Here's what's actually involved in fixing that, and what it tends to cost.
How Wide Does It Need to Be?
The ADA minimum clear width for wheelchair passage is 32 inches, but that's a bare minimum measured with the door open at 90 degrees — most accessibility specialists recommend 36 inches where possible, especially for a primary bathroom or bedroom door, since it gives a wheelchair or rollator room to maneuver rather than just squeeze through.
Three Ways to Get There
- Swing-clear offset hinges — the cheapest and least invasive option. These special hinges swing the door completely clear of the opening instead of into it, recovering about 2 inches of clear width without touching the wall or frame. Often enough to get a 28–30” doorway to a usable width for a walker or narrower wheelchair. Typically a same-day fix.
- Widening the frame — removing the existing door and jamb and reframing the opening wider. This is real construction work: it involves the wall framing on both sides, potentially the header above the door, and refinishing the surrounding wall and trim. This is where a non-load-bearing interior wall matters a lot for cost — see below.
- Relocating the doorway entirely — sometimes the existing doorway location doesn't work well even at 36” because of what's on the other side (a corner, a fixture). Moving the opening is the most invasive and expensive option, but occasionally it's the only way to get a workable turning radius on both sides of the door.
The Question That Determines Your Cost: Is It Load-Bearing?
Widening a doorway in a non-load-bearing interior wall is a relatively contained job. Widening one in a load-bearing wall means adding a properly sized header to carry the load above the new opening — more labor, more materials, and in some cases an engineer's sign-off depending on the span. Don't assume either way before a contractor looks at it; in a lot of homes it's not obvious from looking at the wall alone.
Typical Cost Ranges
- Swing-clear offset hinges: $150–$400 installed
- Widening a non-load-bearing doorway: $1,000–$2,500, including framing, drywall, and trim
- Widening a load-bearing doorway: $2,500–$6,000+, depending on the header size required
Don't Forget the Threshold
A wider door doesn't help much if there's still a raised threshold or a height change between rooms catching the wheels. If you're widening a doorway into a bathroom, it's worth having the same contractor look at the threshold and flooring transition at the same time rather than treating it as a separate project later.
Who to Call
This is general contractor work, not a bathroom specialist's job — look for a contractor comfortable with framing and structural work: A&I Construction, Nailed It Construction, and Next-Gen Pro-Builders all list this kind of structural/entryway work among their services.