ADA accessible units

[omegatron81]

We know the requirements for the ADA units and on our state association's website it links to this kit:

https://janusintl.com/storage-disabi...ts/order-kits/

Just curious on the position of the ramp. How does the door close and latch if the ramp is up to the weather lip/edge of the concrete? Is there already a place in the door track for the latch two inches higher? Do you have to drill in the door track?

We are shooting for March 1st opening and need to get this squared away ASAP. Any advice or recommendations on this will be much appreciated. Thanks

[KrisinCali]

We didn't go with these kits-we made our own for half the price. You can get the line/strap from Home Depot (they have different colors), and the signs as well. Just drill a hole to connect the line through, using the fastener of your choice. But sit in a chair to make sure that someone in a wheelchair can reach it. As to the ramp/unit lip Id call Janus and speak to one of their guys because our units were interior units so we didn't face this issue.

[omegatron81]

Thanks for the response Kris. I am mostly worried about the ramp. The signage and straps are fairly inexpensive from Chateau.

Hoping for some more advice in regards to the ramp with drive up units. Specifically with closing the door with the ramp up to the weather lip--don't know what you call this...

Anybody??

[Maine-iac]

Hi Omega. I saw your post in the other thread. It's hard to tell from this photo, but from the description it appears that they will build it to order. It looks like the ramp butts up against the front edge of the slab. To meet ADAAG, a ramp must be 1'-0" wide for every 1" in elevation change. If there is a big change in elevation, you might have a pretty long ramp

Does your door slide down over the front edge of the floor slab to the pavement, or does it come down on top of the floor slab? Can you measure how much of a change in elevation is there from the pavement to the storage unit slab?

If your door comes down over the front of the slab to the pavement, this kit could prevent the door from closing the same way. This could be a problem for your locking mechanism. I don't know what your door hardware looks like but you might need to modify the slot in the frame or move a piece of the hardware.

I'm not sure there is enough information to make a recommendation, but I would recommend getting together some photos and dimensions of the specific units you want to make accessible and give the vendor a call.

[omegatron81]

Our slabs have about a two inch lip about a foot in from the edge of the concrete that the door closes over. When the door is shut you cannot see this lip. This is for protection against rain and flooding. After the door is closed, all you see is about a foot of concrete and the pavement goes right up to this. Does that make sense?

My understanding is the ramp would start from the outer edge of the concrete and go up to the top of the weather lip. I don't believe our doors will close unless we modify the door track to accommodate a new latch position.

I guess we should just call them and see what they say. I thought someone on here would have had this experience with the drive up units and could offer advice before I called.

Thanks for your input!

[Steve_hajewski]

Ideally that ramp should have been formed into the slab when poured. It can also be ground out after the fact, but that's pretty labor intensive and does not look as nice.

As Maine-iac points out, this aftermarket solution technically does not likely satisfy federal code. The notch is usually 10" which is not long enough to get the correct pitch for the 1.5" rise. Actual enforcement varies greatly from state to state, even city to city. Some areas do not allow a roll up door to qualify as ADA compliant unless it has a motor operator, or more commonly in those areas, a traditional swing door with compliant lever handle.

If you have any interior halls, it is often easier to concentrate a variety of sizes within a hallway and just use lower cost interior grade swing doors on the ADA units.

As for the question of whether or not the track needs to be modified, I would guess that yes you will need to elongate the hole in the door guide slightly. An alternative could be to place a small shim under the door tracks when installing it to simply raise up the entire door assembly (if this is a Trachte building the shim method will thrown off the alignment between the door bracket and jamb mounting holes). This may depend on your brand of doors.

If you drill out the guides to do this be sure to vacuum up the shavings. They may rust and leave marks on your concrete.

Steve Hajewski
Trachte Building Systems
Marketing Manager
608 327-3208

[omegatron81]

Thanks Steve. I was hoping you would offer some advice. Our buildings are Trachte and construction is completed with the exception of finishing office interior and a few minor exterior touches.

Information from TN storage association says:

1" rise in 9" run = 1-5/16: 12 slope
An ADA wheelchair ramp may have a slope of 1-1/2:12 to 1-3/16:12 ratio, but not for a rise of more than 3 inches

I am gonna go and measure everything and call into Janus that sells the kits and just talk to them at this point. Obviously, this is something we overlooked earlier in construction with our very 1st project.

Again thanks to Maine-iac and Steve for the input.

[Maine-iac]

Adam,

If the door closes down over the front of the slab then you may have to install the ramp on the outside of the door frame. When the door opens, this will leave a gap between the slab and the ramp. This is technically not allowed under the ADA design guidelines, but your vendor may have a solution. In this situation,

Can we back up and ask the question what is prompting these modifications? In most jurisdictions, a renovation of over 10% of the facility (in terms of value) would trigger ADA compliance, but only in the renovation areas. Steve is right - the ramp is only one issue, there are several things that would make a standard storage unit non-accessible. For example, the lock and latch mechanism would not pass. The test for locks and latches is that they must be easily operated with a closed fist. Are you being required to make some or all of your units accessible by a code enforcement officer? What is his or her rationale?

The law requires us to make reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities. In a new facility there is no issue - you just design it to current codes. If the configuration of an existing unit does cannot be made accessible, there is an argument with the code enforcement officer to make a "reasonable accommodation" that gets you most of the way there. For a staffed facility, I might fabricate a temporary ramp that gets stored someplace and brought out when needed.

[omegatron81]

This is new construction. As stated in my response to Steve, this was an oversight on our part during construction. There is no compliance officer that is involved. We do have a city building inspector. I don't know if he is aware of ADA codes for self storage, but he has been strict with other codes we had to meet for our city and will not allow us to open unless everything looks like it was on our presented plans that were approved by our planning commission.

In educating myself and my partners, we joined our state association for various reasons. One document that membership gives us access to, is an ADA document that talks about this. I guess I am worried that if we don't have these ramps on 5% of our units, then we our non compliant. Like I said, maybe the inspector will not know or even ask about this. But, in my opinion, we as owners know that requirement and are obligated to make it right. We really hate to ask the city building inspector because then we know he will scrutinize everything else on our project.

Maybe we could just order one or two ramps that we could put out for a customer's need. This is a small town with small town politics. We just want to do the right thing here.

Thanks Maine for all your input. Would the "reasonable accommodations" apply here as a newly developed project?

[KIC1653]

We didn't go with these kits-we made our own for half the price. You can get the line/strap from Home Depot (they have different colors), and the signs as well. Just drill a hole to connect the line through, using the fastener of your choice. But sit in a chair to make sure that someone in a wheelchair can reach it. As to the ramp/unit lip Id call Janus and speak to one of their guys because our units were interior units so we didn't face this issue.

Im trying to find these on home depot's website with no luck. do you have a link?

[KrisinCali]

Im trying to find these on home depot's website with no luck. do you have a link?

They sell the strapping in the aisle with all of the rope etc. They don't have a 'kit' per se, we just made one. Look under 'webbing'. Walmart sells it online as well, by the roll in 'handicap' blue, Home Depot doesn't have blue online.

https://www.amazon.com/Disabled-Wheelchair-Compliant-Handicap-Stickers/dp/B01BHBDUB6

Drill hole through door, make a loop through strap into a handle and bolt it to door. CAREFULLY burn the edges of the nylon strap to keep it from fraying.

[dakselfstorage]

It is easy to adjust the door track for the latch. Just use a Vise gripe in the track slot and bend it away and break off the section you clamped it to. Going the other way is a bit harder as you would need to add material. We have done this by using an 1 inch l bracket screwed the the jamb.

[megan.bosse]

This is new construction. As stated in my response to Steve, this was an oversight on our part during construction. There is no compliance officer that is involved. We do have a city building inspector. I don't know if he is aware of ADA codes for self storage, but he has been strict with other codes we had to meet for our city and will not allow us to open unless everything looks like it was on our presented plans that were approved by our planning commission.

In educating myself and my partners, we joined our state association for various reasons. One document that membership gives us access to, is an ADA document that talks about this. I guess I am worried that if we don't have these ramps on 5% of our units, then we our non compliant. Like I said, maybe the inspector will not know or even ask about this. But, in my opinion, we as owners know that requirement and are obligated to make it right. We really hate to ask the city building inspector because then we know he will scrutinize everything else on our project.

Maybe we could just order one or two ramps that we could put out for a customer's need. This is a small town with small town politics. We just want to do the right thing here.

Thanks Maine for all your input. Would the "reasonable accommodations" apply here as a newly developed project?

Adam - I came across this thread because we are in the same boat you were on this. Same design, new construction and trying to cover all our ADA compliance bases. Can I ask what you ended up doing and how it went over with inspections?

[drawabox]

If you are designing the ADA storage doors yourself be careful of the force needed to operate them. Interior doors require 5lbs of force max.

For the ramp it would be best to have them poured with the slab if at all possible.