Someone asked me a question the other day and it turned out to be one of those “things that make you go hmmm…”  The question was this:

Would a surface mounted automatic door bottom with a sloped top be allowed by the accessibility standards?

Initially, my answer was no – a surface mounted automatic door bottom does not comply with the accessibility requirements for manual doors to have a flush, smooth surface on the push side, measured 10 inches up from the floor.  This requirement affects products like surface mounted vertical rod panic hardware with bottom rods and latches, full-height pulls mounted on the push side of the door, surface bolts, and kick-down stops, along with automatic door bottoms.  The purpose is to provide a smooth surface that will not catch a cane, crutch, wheelchair footpad, etc., as someone is moving through the door opening.   You can read more about the requirement in this Decoded article.

But what about this…there is an exception for glass doors with sloped bottom rails.  Here’s what is required by both ICC A117.1 and the ADA standards:

Tempered glass doors without stiles and having a bottom rail or shoe with the top leading edge tapered at 60 degrees minimum from the horizontal shall not be required to meet the 10 inch (255 mm) bottom smooth surface height requirement.

Technically, this exception applies to tempered glass doors, but could an automatic door bottom with a sloped top be allowed by the AHJ as an equivalency?  I’m going to add this to my wish list for consideration in the next round of changes to the standards, although that might be a while.

What do you think?  WWYD?

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