I worked this afternoon with an intern architect on a submittal that came in from our stone sub-contractor. The submittal was for stone partitions for some restrooms in a commercial building. The stone for these partitions is specified as 1 & 1/4″ thick slabs of a marble called “Perlatina.”

The submittal was to verify their layout for the space around the water closets ( toilets and urinals) and make sure the sizes were meeting our plans and intent. As the intern architect was reviewing the submittal he found a couple discrepancies. We reviewed these together. Here is what the submittal looked like after our comments.

The first problem we found was the thickness of the partition was only 3/4″ as compared to our specified thickness. In stone language, they used a 2cm as compared to our specified 3cm. This threw off the partition layout enough that we had to re-verify that the new dimensions met ADA code compliance. The following are really good sources when it comes to verifying ADA code compliance:

The elevations turned into the biggest problem. They bid the project not telling us that we couldn’t get slabs the height we requested. This was the first that we were notified of the problem.

 

Though we are pushing to keep our specs as we drew and issued them, the sub-contractor is suggesting that we epoxy glue 5″ more leg onto the the bottom of the legs to meet the 5′-10″.  We have requested a mock up on this solution. In the very least, we think we need to add a stainless steal shoe around the leg for it to work and look good, but we will resolve it once a mock up is made.

It’s important to make sure you are up on the code when you go through this process. Their are height and size limitations through out the restrooms that should be followed. In situations like these when you end up with something you hadn’t planned, it is imperative that your resolution still stays within the code.