Glenn Younger of Grah Safe & Lock sent me this photo, and I think this is a great application – I’m wondering what you all think. The model codes currently limit operable hardware height to 34-48 inches above the floor (34-44 inches in California). There is an exception that addresses the mounting height of hardware on doors and gates serving swimming pools, which allows hardware to be mounted up to 54 inches above the floor if the door is not self-locking. The purpose of this exception is to help prevent small children from accessing a swimming pool unsupervised.
A similar problem exists with day care facilities – particularly egress gates serving the playground, and other areas where small children are present. If the hardware is mounted at the standard height, a small child may leave the playground unaccompanied. Although delayed egress locks may be an option for some occupancies, they are not feasible for all locations.
Glenn told me that they have asked the AHJ for a code modification on some of their projects, to allow the mounting height for swimming pools to be used for gates serving day care playgrounds. The photo below illustrates this application. Maybe a code change proposal should be submitted in order to make this a code-compliant option?
WWYD?
Here is the IBC section on mounting height of operable hardware, for reference:
1010.1.9.2 Hardware height. Door handles, pulls, latches, locks and other operating devices shall be installed 34 inches (864 mm) minimum and 48 inches (1219 mm) maximum above the finished floor. Locks used only for security purposes and not used for normal operation are permitted at any height.
Exception: Access doors or gates in barrier walls and fences protecting pools, spas and hot tubs shall be permitted to have operable parts of the latch release on self-latching devices at 54 inches (1370 mm) maximum above the finished floor or ground, provided that the self-latching devices are not also self-locking devices operated by means of a key, electronic opener or integral combination lock.
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I would approve for non required exit gates.
But, not if a required exit from the area.
Great idea, again common sense…
I’m not sure I agree. I don’t think a public pool gate is a good comparison for a couple of reasons.
1) At the pool, there’s no authority responsible for keeping an eye on the child aside from the parent/guardian. It’s common enough that a child wonders away from a parent/guardian who is engaged in something.
2) At the pool, you are restricting ingress, not egress.
3) At a daycare, the teacher to student ratio is set to make sure kids are supervised at all times. This means children must be within view by a supervising adult. Elopement from a small play ground shouldn’t be a regular enough occurrence that this would be an issue.
4) How is elopement from a play ground any different than a kid walking out a side door onto a busy sidewalk or street?
I’m coming at this from the point of view of a parent who’s had schools and day cares use all kinds of excuses for not being able to follow laws and regulations. And I see this as another one that shouldn’t be necessary.
The issue i see is the gate is required for emergency egress and if the child cant reach the latch in the case of an emergency how can it be considered an exit. staff should be observing the kids because even with the latch 6 feet above grade a pedophile can open the gate and grab a child there are many issues today with incidents where there need to be accountability for safety that 20 years ago didn’t exist. if we lock the occupants in it cannot be egress anymore.
I saw a similar modification done for a day care center on the campus of Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh PA back around 1980. It was an interior application and the University carpenter shop took a flush wood door and cut it similar to the metal gate shown here and the upper half of the door was just a 6″ lock stile. They installed a bored lock latchset at 60″ AFF and it did the trick!
I think this is an excellent solution; lots of exterior gates in SoCal, I think this would be readily approved by AHJ’s here. We’ll see — I’ll propose this at next opportunity.
I solved this here with a simple fix. We put in one of them small Koi ponds/pools. locks moved up and kids had cool new activity of feeding the fish.
What could be done in the past is water under the bridge. Good luck today getting ADA to approve anything other than 34-48″.