3" & 5" Residential Elevator Hoistway and cab gate clearance.

I made the statement over a year a go that the resolution to this Gap issue would not be a quick or short term answered solution. I was right.

The industry is creating solutions and verifying the existing units in the field, code Committees are hashing out specific Performance and Prescriptive language to allow design and Inspection to a common Standard. These Rules are not as simple to define in words alone without diagrams and Engineering data.

The Industry Peers are working towards Consensus.  

Dumb Dumbwaiters that Can Kill

Dumb Dumbwaiters can KILL!

Consumer Product caution!!!

http://www.courthousenews.com/2013/10/09/61878.htm
Do it your self Dumbwaiter may be cheap, but at what cost?

CAUTION Consumers...Protection of Dumbwaiter doors can not be done with magnets and cabinet latches.

While Consumer Product Safety Commission is investigating Residential elevators installed under the current 5.3 ASME Code, They are missing far greater Dangers in DIY lifting products like Dumbwaiters & Stair Lifts.

While there have been cases of Child entrapment in residential elevators it is my opinion, based on industry facts, that the Much larger danger to the public is Do It Yourself - DIY Dumbwaiters & Stair Lifts and Soon to be DIY Home Elevators.

The case listed above identify what has been happening in greater frequency with Dumbwaiters,Stair Lifts and Wheelchair Lifts being sold online via the LOW Cost Online Marketers. A simple Goolge search will identify what looks to be the only way to buy a Lift of Elevator....DIY. 

There are 10 - 20 websites that appear to be real elevator companies with real experts who say the Sell Nationwide or Factory Direct to Home owners and builders.

Many of them have no Installers and are not insured to install elevators and have no Completed Operations Insurance to cover defective claims on installed equipment. 

Please take caution when dealing with any ONLINE company that you can not actually go to their showroom and test ride their equipment or one of their customers installations in you area.

Try Before you buy! Verify Actual installations. Anyone can create their own customer references that make them sound legit.

Let the buyer be aware!  

www.elevatorsafety.com

If you have never installed one of these before you can't know the dangers of an improper installation. And the guy selling them to you on the phone in his living room in his underwear does not care if you are competent to install it. He is just selling it and taking your money with NO recourse.

Child Safe Elevators

Child Safe Elevators

Getting a grip on the 3" & 5" Rule for Residential Elevators.

A recent Consumer Products Safety Commission Investigation was launched to determine the risk and solutions to any potential for Small children to become entrapped in a 5" space. Country Home
Elevators and Stair Lifts has been providing better solutions well in advance of this investigation.

The issue relates to the following:
1. Installation of Standard Residential door frames with 2"x4" jambs vs 2"x6" jambs.
2. The added cost and design criteria needed to offer flush frame door jambs & locking systems.
3. The development of new locking systems that can be installed in the frames or other locations that would no longer exist when the 3" gap is removed.
4. The use of Accordion fold & Scissors gates as a car door for the residential elevator
5. The potential for light curtains to be used as a Safety limit to assure that the gap was not blocked.
6. The use of Space guards to fill the gap on existing applications.
7. The requirement for Gate re-opening when a car arrives at a landing.
8. Meeting the new .75" & 4" rule. National standard for stair rail baluster spacing is to reject a 4" ball

9. Gate Deflection and rigidity requirements

Basis for 4" rule:

4.  Baluster Spacing (Sphere Rule):  The general rule is to install balusters and newel posts between the handrail and flooring materials so that a 4” sphere (the head of an infant) cannot pass through. 

With the decrease from 6" to 4" in the Sphere Rule, many installations of two  balusters per tread will not pass the new, stricter building codes. When the 4"  Sphere Rule is combined with the new 10" Tread Run Rule, most stair  installations will require three balusters per tread.

More to come on our Child Safe Elevator systems from Symmetry Elevating Solutions

--
Craig S. Jones, CET-S, Owner
Country Home Elevator
800-898-5090
craigjones.che@gmail.com
www.countryhomeelevator.com