Education Resources for
Builders

Safety Standards for
Residential

Do you live or work with residential elevators?


If you're considering including residential elevators in your next project or installing one in your home, please note: revisions have been made to the current safety code for residential elevators that address child entrapment and injury hazards.

A Change to the Residential Elevator Code Aims to Increase Safety Standards


A recent change to the Residential Elevator Code, ASME A17.1-2016/CSA B44-16 Section 5.3.1.7, requires that the measured distance from the face of the hoistway door to the face of the car door must be no more than 4". It also states that the hoistway door must be no more than ¾" from the hoistway sill.

And, fire-protection rating of hoistway doors cannot be less than required by the building code, and must be capable of withstanding a force of 670 N (150 pound-force) that is applied horizontally over an area 4" x 4" in the center of the doors, without permanent displacement or deformation.


View Code Compliance

These changes were made to address the potential entrapment of children between the hoistway door and the car door.


Ensuring Confidence with Compliance

Residential elevators remain a safe method of enhancing your ability to live freely and comfortably in your own home. This extra safety measure will allow residential elevator and lift manufacturers to improve their safety guarantee, to reassure you, the customer, that you and your loved ones will be safe while the lift is in operation.

The goal of any company in this industry is to ensure that both the design and the finished product exceed expectations, which includes higher safety standards.

While these changes will affect homeowners, dealers, and builders/contractors/architects differently, all can benefit knowing that compliant elevators will offer enhanced safety measures to safeguard against possible injury.