ADA Installation Regulations

[Joe Pelonio]

This afternoon I am starting on a job which involves installing about 500 ADA signs at a new high school still in the final stages of construction.

Is anyone aware of any recent changes that I need to be aware of on installation? As far as I know the proposed changes have not yet been made law so we should go by what is law currently.

Here's what I have, for your review, please correct if wrong:

60" from floor to center of sign

Placement on the wall nearest the latch side of door

4" from edge of sign to door for new construction (3" on existing buildings)

We are planning to put many of them on the glass relights, hopefully that is still considered wall or there is no possible place to put them.

Update:

I managed to get a hold of a human at the Justice Department, responsible for enforcement of ADA, and verified that we should use the old regulations until the new ones under review are actually approved.

[Bart Leetch]

This afternoon I am starting on a job which involves installing about 500 ADA signs at a new high school still in the final stages of construction.

Is anyone aware of any recent changes that I need to be aware of on installation? As far as I know the proposed changes have not yet been made law so we should go by what is law currently.

Here's what I have, for your review, please correct if wrong:

60" from floor to center of sign

Placement on the wall nearest the latch side of door

4" from edge of sign to door for new construction (3" on existing buildings)

We are planning to put many of them on the glass relights, hopefully that is still considered wall or there is no possible place to put them.

You need to be aware of the rules for both city, state & federal.

There are places to look on the internet I don't have the URLs right now but you should be able to do a search for them make sure you have the latest info. its no fun going back to do it all over again.

[Bill Dunn jr]

Hi Joe,

I would contact the L&I official that covers the area where the school is being built. I've been out of cmmercial construction for a few years now, but everything you say is correct as far as I know. Some of these guys interpret things so differently, get him to tell you where he wants them. It would be brutal to have to change 500 signs. I would also do what Bart said and check with the local guys.

[Joe Pelonio]

First, the start has been delayed to Wednesday, as the project manager didn't get us a copy of the plans in time. We sort of need to know which room is which.

This is a private (Catholic) school and may not have the same regulations as a public school, but were are several interesting things done during construction that we noticed and had never seen before. For example, a 12" high "fence" of 2" pipe to keep a blind person in a wheelchair from running into stairs where they are exposed (freestanding). They also have illuminated signs with the wheelchair symbol and the words "Disabled Refuge" which is where people meet in case of fire alarm or other emergencies for help getting out.

After exhaustive research, it turns out that the city, county, and state here all follow the federal regulations. I also found out that in California, while the federal regulations are followed, they have established statewide conformity standards for signs, while other states have flexibility as to shape, size and color. Many other states including ours have a specific
sign just for vehicle parking spaces.

[Keith Outten]

There isn't a prescribed distance from the edge of the door, just make sure that a person may approach within 3 in (76 mm) of the sign without encountering protruding objects or standing within the swing of a door. I use a standard door edge to center of sign measurment of 9" and adjust the distance when necessary. On my 6" wide door signs the edge of door to edge of sign is 6".

I made an installation tool from a piece of aluminum flat bar 65" long. I have two holes in the flat bar that corespond to the two keyholes machined in the back of my door signs. I place the flat bar 9" from the door edge and the bottom rests on the floor so each sign is positioned uniformly.


28 CFR Part 36
Revised as of July 1, 1994

4.30.6 Mounting Location and Height.
Where permanent identification is provided
for rooms and spaces, signs shall be installed
on the wall adjacent to the latch side of the
door. Where there is no wall space to the latch
side of the door, including at double leaf
doors, signs shall be placed on the nearest
adjacent wall. Mounting height shall be 60 in
(1525 mm) above the finish floor to the
centerline of the sign. Mounting location for
such signage shall be so that a person may
approach within 3 in (76 mm) of signage
without encountering protruding objects or
standing within the swing of a door.

[Joe Pelonio]

There isn't a prescribed distance from the edge of the door, just make sure that a person may approach within 3 in (76 mm) of the sign without encountering protruding objects or standing within the swing of a door. I use a standard door edge to center of sign measurment of 9" and adjust the distance when necessary. On my 6" wide door signs the edge of door to edge of sign is 6".

I made an installation tool from a piece of aluminum flat bar 65" long. I have two holes in the flat bar that corespond to the two keyholes machined in the back of my door signs. I place the flat bar 9" from the door edge and the bottom rests on the floor so each sign is positioned uniformly.

It seems that if the sign is 3" from the door edge, you have the minimum plus the width of the door frame. When the doors open in it wouldn't matter. They want uniformity, as much as possible.

That tool is a great idea. These are 2-sided foam tape, but I can adapt to it. Sure would make it go faster.

[Larry Bratton]

Joe:
In so far as I know, the excerpt Ken posted is current. I have a manual that I purchased a couple of years back from Accent when I got the braille license for their system. I refer to it all the time and have never had a problem. I follow the same guidelines per Ken's post. However, I would question as to whether or not the regs would have to be followed to the letter since this is not a public building. I do imagine though that the owner and architect have specified same, so that is what will have to be followed. Would they have blind students at this school? I am somewhat out of touch with that, since it's been a longggg time since I have been in a school. I'm sure things have changed since then.

[Joe Pelonio]

Joe:
Would they have blind students at this school? I am somewhat out of touch with that, since it's been a longggg time since I have been in a school. I'm sure things have changed since then.

I doubt it. Would be hard for them to pass the entrance exam. Most blind students will go to a special school where they can learn braille and other special skills. The ADA requirement though is not just for students, a blind parent could be there for a parent-teacher conference, for example.

[Larry Bratton]

Joe:
ADA applies to public buildings only or places that receive the public. My thought is that a private school is not a public building. Now, they can certainly make their building accessible, which is a proper thing to do, but are they REQUIRED to by the law? I wonder sometimes how many times the braille we put on signs is actually used by blind persons.
I know public schools have to conform as they are obviously public buildings with government monies involved. I recently looked at a bid on a sign project for a public school and it was all ADA signage. Again, I had the same thought. However, the law is the law.

[Keith Outten]

I installed 34 new door signs Thursday from the batch of 140 that I am running right now for one of our residence halls. Yesterday I engraved nine laptops for our Library Staff then back to engraving door signs getting the next lot ready to install. This is a never ending task with literally thousands of door signs ahead of me, I just found out that our newest residence hall has lost most of its acrylic door signs and has moved up on the priority list.

The new Corian door signs are working well, machining two keyholes on each sign and using LocTite Power Grab when I hang them has reduced our sign loss to just a couple signs per year per building. The residence hall I am working on now lost every acrylic door sign in two years that cost us $15,000 when the building was built. The new Corian signs will be a major cost savings to the taxpayers, the problem is i can't make them fast enough.

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[Danny Nichols]

Keith

Sounds like a nice problem to have. Would really like to see one of the corian door signs you are hanging, could you post a picture.

[Keith Outten]

Danny,

Visit this link and check the first picture. This is a typical door sign that I make at Christopher Newport University. The contor line is routed and painted, the text, numbers and sail graphics are cut from LaserMax 1/16" thick engravers plastic.

I'll have to get some better pictures next week, I have a few that are multi-colored based on the same sign shape. I have used this same sign blank for awards plaques as well.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...rian+door+sign
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[Larry Bratton]

I installed 34 new door signs Thursday from the batch of 140 that I am running right now for one of our residence halls. Yesterday I engraved nine laptops for our Library Staff then back to engraving door signs getting the next lot ready to install. This is a never ending task with literally thousands of door signs ahead of me, I just found out that our newest residence hall has lost most of its acrylic door signs and has moved up on the priority list.

The new Corian door signs are working well, machining two keyholes on each sign and using LocTite Power Grab when I hang them has reduced our sign loss to just a couple signs per year per building. The residence hall I am working on now lost every acrylic door sign in two years that cost us $15,000 when the building was built. The new Corian signs will be a major cost savings to the taxpayers, the problem is i can't make them fast enough.

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Say Keith, not to be off topic here, but what happened with the Corian shared orders? Haven't heard anymore.

I am making a lot of door IDs right now. I am using 1/4" melamine, engraved and paint filled. These are for apartments. I am anxious to give the Corian a try. It really looks great.

[Keith Outten]

Larry,

Sorry, I dropped the ball on this one. Jackie and my youngest daughter just got back from several days in Atlanta and Aaron has been transitioning from his full time job at William and Mary to their Doctoral Program so I have been the only Admin here for almost a week.

Last weekend we finished installing the last few pieces of trim cover on my house so I really need to get this Corian order going, I need five sheets to build the new columns on my porch and that is the last job to do on the house exterior. I will check with Jackie to see who sent us their addresses so I can send our totals to my distributor. I think that I still have to figure shipping and packaging but I can get that done this weekend.

If you have already sent your shipping address to Jackie I will send you a couple of my door sign blanks that are ready to engrave so you can try them out. You have to play with your laser settings to get the Corian to engrave right at 0.031" deep. This will provide the perfect depth for gluing your letters and braille balls. Use CA glue for the letters, numbers and graphics. Braille balls can be either press fit or you can use craft glue for additional security. CA glue melts acrylic.

If you use Corian for awards or plaques other than ADA signs you can spray paint the surface filling the engraved areas then sand the plaque with a random orbital sander which will remove all the paint on the surface leaving pristine engraved areas. For multiple colors I use Testors model paint and just wipe it in the engraved areas with a brush then sand the top surface. No muss no fuss no masking

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[Keith Outten]

Here are a couple of pictures that might help. The first is a picture of several signs that have just been painted. I don't use this technique anymore, now I spray paint without having to tape the edges...before I route the edge prep so the routing removes any paint that gets on the edges. Sorry about the picture quality, they were just quick shots I took awhile back and they are very grainy. I don't paint the sails anymore either, I switched to cutting the sails from LaserMax and gluing them in so they are raised rather than painted. I have made many changes to my fabrication technique on these door signs in an effort to reduce fabrication time and improve the quality. For instance these days I put on a rubber glove and hold the plaque in my hand to spray paint the contor line. I use Ace Hardware spray paint with a ten minute drying time so the first blanks painted are ready to sand when the last have been painted. After sanding the surface they are edge routed then laser engraved. I also stopped using ABS plastic for letters and numbers, everything is cut from LaserMax now. The fancy signs that have pictograms for the stairs and such are real eye-poppers

Routing the contor line dropped my engraving time from 45 minutes to just eight minutes per sign.

Back on topic...for installation I use two templates. One is the aluminum flat bar I mentioned earlier the other is an acrylic template shaped identically to the sign. There are times when you can't use the flat bar when obstructions are between the sign and the floor. When this happens I use the acrylic template and measure the distance with a tape measure. I am currently modifying my acrylic template to include a level that is built in so I won't have to reach for my torpedo level and this will eliminate another step. I will also install a small level on the flat bar this week, this will allow me to mark both holes on the wall for drilling in one step.
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