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Hotels ...

e hilton

Bronze Member
Joined
Jul 2, 2014
Messages
3,130
Location
Virginia
Wasn’t sure where to post this.
I travel for business. I look at things differently than normal people ... as I’m sure most of you are also guilty of. The Hampton Inn i stayed in last night ... overall pretty decent, except for 2 things.

I always look at the elevator inspection certificate. Really makes me mad when there isnt one and it says “certificate in maintenance office”. BS. At least post a copy here. Last night both elevators had certificates ... both were expired.

Lots of places, you step out of your room and look both ways in the, looking for the elevator lobby. No clue where it is, nothing but a long lin3 of doors on both sides. But the place I stayed last night had a nice clue: an illuminated exit sign pointing to the elevators. Thats nice ... but it was a dead end lobby, no true exit door.
 
  1. Regarding the Cert. Some states allow them to be kept in the Bldg. Mantanance office due to vandalism
  2. Regarding the Elevator Lobby. Elevators are not exits. Signs directing you to them are Not necessarily required, except for Accessibility.
  3. Regarding the dead end corridor Are you sure it is a dead end corridor?
Check out the Exceptions: (note this is CA code, others may vary)
CBC 1020.4 Dead ends
Exceptions
In occupancies in Groups B, E, F, M, R-1, R-2, R-2.1, R-4, S and U, where the building is equipped throughout with an automatic sprinkler system in accordance with Section 903.3.1.1, the length of the dead-end corridors shall not exceed 50 feet.​
 
Last night both elevators had certificates ... both were expired.
Not unusual here in this state. 4 state elevator inspectors to cover the entire state. Which equates to an area of 36,750 sq miles per inspector. That is a lot of windshield time to approve new installations and check existing elevators
 
In Maryland, I've been told by DLLR (responsible for elevator inspections) that as long as a cert is in the cab, they don't care if it is expired and contact info to view the current one is posted. They said they don't have time to ding people for just the expired cert if their records show it is current.

Now if you have a bad cert and they find other bad stuff...
 
But otherwise I'm the same...missing or expired certs make me question every creak and squeal on unfamiliar elevators.
 
And how many deaths or injuries do we have a year from elevators?
Incidents involving elevators and escalators kill about 30 and seriously injure about 17,000 people each year in the United States, according to data provided by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Injuries to people working on or near elevators - including those installing, repairing, and maintaining elevators, and working in or near elevator shafts - account for 14 (almost half) of the annual deaths. Half of the deaths of workers working in or near elevator shafts were due to falls into the shaft.

What's your odds...
 
I guess calling it a dead end corridor was misleading. You leave the main hallway, that has stairs at each end, and step into the elevator lobby. 20 ft deep? Then there is a door at the end that leads to the ice machine. Thats it. So maybe technically maybe its not a dead end lobby, but I'm thinking ... 3 am ... fire alarm ... strange hotel ... i step out of my room, there are illuminated exit signs at the far ends but look! ... there’s an illuminated exit sign just 30 ft away ... i can escape the emergency that way. Wrong.

I understand the vandalism and the inspection certs ... but just post a xerox copy. And this hotel was in maryland, off i-95 near columbia. Decent part of the state.
 
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