CASI California Survey Reports Acceptance Criteria Field Tolerances AC 03 -12

Certified Access Specialist Institute | California Survey Reports | Acceptance Criteria

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Field Tolerances AC 03 -12

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Proposed 05-10-12

Discipline: Access Compliance

References: CBSC Part 2, 11B-104; ADAS

The meaning and use of regulations in the California Building Standards Code must be applied to the fullest intent as necessary to fulfill the purpose of statutory and regulatory law. Therefore as a matter of purpose, this document identifies critical issues of code which must be addressed to assure that buildings, structures and related facilities are accessible to, and functional for, people with disabilities to, through, and within public accommodations, without loss of function, space, or facility where the general public is concerned. This Acceptance Criteria (AC) is intended for use by Members of the Certified Access Specialist Institute as a voluntary standard for maintaining clarity, consistency and uniform application of criteria for field inspection of projects within California, and may indicate acceptable methods for achieving compliance with applicable codes and regulations, although other methods proposed by design professionals which address these guidelines may be justified on a case-by-case basis. This standard is reviewed on a regular basis and is subject to revision at any time. Only AC’s listed on the CASI website at http://www.casinstitute.org are considered applicable. _______________________________________________________________________________________________

Code item:

CASI Acceptance Rating: % [sic]

11B-104 Conventions

11B-104.1 Dimensions. Dimensions that are not stated as “maximum” or “minimum” are absolute.

11B-104.1.1 Construction and Manufacturing Tolerances. All dimensions are subject to conventional industry tolerances except where the requirement is stated as a range with specific minimum and maximum end points.

Purpose: Field tolerances allow minor discrepancies common in construction due to varying sizes in the assembly of different materials. Different manufacturers and many kinds of materials maybe selected to fulfill the design objective, and often unforeseen field conditions make exact dimensions impossible. to achieve. In many cases, the California Building Standards Code prescribes exceptions and prescriptive alternatives that detail other design options. In other instances, the requirement is stated as a range with specific minimum and maximum end points.

Discussion: Occasionally, a Certified Access Specialist (CASp) may discover construction approved by Authorities Having Jurisdiction (AHJ) where their department's field tolerance policies for either new construction or alteration projects do not comply with 11B-104.

Procedure:

To issue the final CASp Inspected Certificate, if the Field Tolerance policies of a local jurisdiction do not comply with 11B-104, the unallowable tolerances cannot be safely used unless the jurisdiction goes through the process of determining that an Unreasonable Hardship exists due to a Technically Infeasible condition. Further, Equivalent Facilitation must be provided. If the building department reviews all the CASp report punch list items and allows construction tolerances beyond published acceptable industry tolerances to any of the items based on local policy inconsistent with 11B-104, the owner must assume the liability for accepting such determinations.

Acceptance Criteria: A determinations of Unreasonable Hardship with Equivalent Facilitation is the acceptable method of compliance if 11B-104 is not met.

Gary Layman

Director of Professional Practice Standards

Michael Mankin

CASI Communications Chair