Parking areas are a common spot for accessibility barriers. CCPIA’s Lance Coffman takes us on a commercial inspection where these barriers are causing more problems than solutions. What would you do? Leave a comment below!
I would stop worrying about making people happy or unhappy.
Provided this was included in my well defined and agreed upon scope of work, I would document these deficiencies and present my findings in the appropriate format. For my company, this is typically a written report.
Just curious, what ADA standard are you using? I see you hit on a few good ADA issues, but there is at least one more.
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You just report what you find. Why worry about what you are going to say if it is factual and have photos and if needed measurements to back up your finding. This is why we are hired, to report what is wrong, needs improvment, repair, or replacement.
Just this week we had two commercial jobs where rock salt had deteriorated the sidewalks all around the buildings, leaving uneven surfaces that are a tripping hazard. Our clients were happy, I could care less about the owners feelings.
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Hey Brian,
Thank you for the input! I most certainly documented them and went back to the original repair companies who created this parking stall for the client to determine their scope of work. Based on their repair invoices they did not unfortunately.
Regarding the ADA, I follow the ComSOP accessibility survey first, yet one step further I follow the basic ADA inspection principals that can be found on the ADA ,US Acessboard, and ADATA sites. I have conferred ADA specialists in the past as well for special projects. My hope was to point a few obvious defects and make a simple point about the client conversation.
What other accessible defects would you add to this!? Thanks for posting!
Hey Scott! Thank you for the response.
It is not so much worrying about what others are going to say. It is taking into consideration how the conversation is going to go when you state facts. Someone will likely reach out to you from the repair group to have “words” Ha. This happens and it is important for inspectors to know how to navigate it. True, report on facts and move on. Yet, instances will occur where a tiff will occur and we need to know how to professionally handle it for the sake of all involved. I left the video open ended to determine what inspectors may do. Always curious about the opinions of my colleagues.
And rock salt is the worst, right!
Thanks for sharing Scott! Stay safe!
I am not surprised. It would be a very specific repair item added to a typical seal coat and paint project.
Just a recommendation. Pick a standard and stick to it, the “one step further” needs to be in the agreement, because the standard for the evaluation is critical. As stated, there may be one or more resources and many “checklists” are available.
For example.
I guess as for delivering the bad news, if it were a verbal conversation it would go like this:
“I observed a, b, and c and repair or correction is recommended.”
I have been doing commercial inspections for about the past twenty four years and I can’t recall when I have had a confrontation or a heated discussion with anyone over my/our findings from a commercial project. We always remain professional and do not put our ourselves in a position where it can happen. I’m sure it can happen and does happen, but we have not expenced it.
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