Private Residential Elevators[PRE] in semipublic facilities – State of Illinois open territories

The latest State of Illinois Fire Marshall Elevator Safety meeting brought on some interesting potentials for facilities like churches, VFW, American Legions, etc that installed private residential elevators in them.

The only building that should have a private residential elevator is a private residence[one family].  Over the years instead of installing a typical commercial elevators churches, VFW’s and other similar buildings that have low traffic installed the PRE. This was never “street legal” but accepted for many years by many inspectors.

A contractor asked for clarification about some recent inspections not passing the lifts due to noncompliance.  The State indicated these lifts should not be passed as they are not included in the State of Illinois public act and should have never been issued conveyance #’s.  Buildings may have filled out the application many years ago and they were miss classified and went under the radar for years.

ASME A18.1 Safety Standard [§410.1]

Platform lifts must meet the ASME A18.1 Safety Standard for Platform Lifts and Stairway Chairlifts. The ASME A18.1 covers the design, construction, installation, operation, inspection, testing, maintenance and repair of lifts that are intended for transportation of persons with disabilities.    However, use of a later edition of the ASME A18.1 may provide equivalent or greater accessibility.  Questions about the ASME A18.1 code should be directed to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (www.asme.org).

While a final decision was not made it was indicated that any PRE must comply with A18.1.  This creates a significant issue for many buildings in open territories that work with the State for their certificates.  If a lift doesn’t have a current certificate they should not be maintained or worked on unless they get an extension.

Municipalities with agreements with the State - Towns with agreements with an elevator inspector will have more flexibility and may not need to comply with A18.1.  These would be towns like Glenview, Skokie, Des Plaines, Homewood, etc.

Take away – While not 100% answer was given buildings that are in “open territories” should talk to their lift maintenance provider about how to comply with A18.1. 

If you have any questions or would like information from Colley Elevator you can go to www.colleyelevator.com, email Craigz@colleyelevator.com or call 630-766-7230.