ADA door requirements: clear width, hardware and closers

Which rules apply

Two documents drive accessible door design in the US. The 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design are federal civil rights requirements. The ICC A117.1 standard is what the International Building Code references, so it is what your building official enforces. They are closely aligned on doors, but not identical, and some states have their own versions (Texas, for example, uses the Texas Accessibility Standards). Design to the stricter of the federal standard and the locally adopted code.

The numbers below come from section 404 of the 2010 ADA Standards and apply to doors on an accessible route.

Clear width and maneuvering clearances

• Clear width: 32 in. minimum, measured between the face of the door and the stop on the latch side with the door open 90 degrees. A 3 ft 0 in. door normally achieves this; a 2 ft 10 in. door usually does not once the door thickness and hinges are subtracted.
• Deep openings: where the opening is more than 24 in. deep, the clear width becomes 36 in.
• Maneuvering clearance, front approach, pull side: 60 in. deep in front of the door and 18 in. beyond the latch side.
• Maneuvering clearance, front approach, push side: 48 in. deep, with additional latch side clearance required when the door has both a closer and a latch.

Side and hinge approaches have their own clearance tables in the standard. Check them on any door near a corner, in a narrow corridor or in a small toilet room, where clearances are most often missed.

ADA door hardware requirements

• Mounting height: handles, pulls, latches, locks and other operable parts between 34 in. and 48 in. above the finished floor.
• Operation: operable with one hand and without tight grasping, tight pinching or twisting of the wrist. Levers, push and pull hardware and exit devices comply; round knobs do not.
• Sliding doors: hardware must be exposed and usable from both sides when the door is fully open.
• Smooth bottom surface: the bottom 10 in. of the push side should be a smooth, uninterrupted surface. A full width kick plate is the usual fix on doors with stiles and rails or glass.

ADA door closer requirements and opening force

• Opening force: 5 lbf maximum for interior hinged doors, sliding doors and folding doors. Fire doors are allowed the minimum opening force permitted by the authority having jurisdiction, because they must close and latch reliably.
• Closing speed: a door closer must be adjusted so the door takes at least 5 seconds to move from an open position of 90 degrees to 12 degrees from the latch.
• Spring hinges: must take at least 1.5 seconds to close from 70 degrees.

The 2010 ADA Standards do not set an opening force for exterior doors; some local codes do. Most adjustable door closers can be set to meet 5 lbf on a standard interior door, but heavy doors, stack pressure and wind may make that impossible on exterior and vestibule doors, which is where power operators come in.

Thresholds and changes in level

Thresholds at accessible doors are limited to 1/2 in. high. Up to 1/4 in. can be vertical; anything between 1/4 in. and 1/2 in. must be beveled at a slope no steeper than 1:2. That limits thick weatherstrip thresholds at exterior doors, and it interacts with the door undercut.

Two other details to check: vision lites in doors need the bottom of the glass no higher than 43 in. above the floor, and two doors in series (a vestibule) need 48 in. plus the width of any door swinging into the space between them.