Departmental Procedures & Guidelines for Inspections, Certifications, Load Testing, Repairs & Painting of Fire Escapes
Inspections by Structural Engineers, Fire Escape Engineers or others acceptable to the Official:
In layman’s terms, the city official is looking for a registered structural engineer or others qualified and acceptable by the Fire/Code Official to do a Critical Examination in lieu of a Live Load Test (criteria submitted or discussed prior to inspection) and issues written verification and certification that all connections are free of internal rust or rot as well as all original hardware (square head bolts or rivet) are reinforced and or replaced in lieu of Live Load Test. All supports (thru-bolts or cemented) into the wall must be verified and certified in lieu of Live Load Test. A fire escape confidence test and tag must be submitted if fire escape passed. The report with photos identifying violations for repairs must include repair criteria submitted to the official for repair vendor to use as a guide during and with engineer oversight of permitted repairs. A Fire Escape Confidence Test and tags identifying certified condition are then submitted. Recommended cycle for live load testing is 20 yrs after total refurbishment or as required by official.
Repairs by Ornamental Ironworkers, Welding Companies or others acceptable to the Official:
In layman’s terms, the city official is looking for a qualified licensed repair vendor to do all work under repair permit (if required) with engineer oversight of repair criteria submitted for approval to the official in lieu of Live Load Test. All connections must be free of internal rust or rot, spot primed and sealed. All worn material repaired and or replaced. All supports into wall reinforced, repaired and certified in a Fire Escape Confidence Test. In lieu of Live Load Test, all square head bolts, rivets and or welded connections must be certified, reinforced and or replaced based on age or condition. All ladders and cantilevers must be balanced and drop 2-3 ft per second, hit the ground and stay down and must lead to a public way. All roof ladders must be secure. No full painting of any fire escape until all spot painted repairs are inspected and certified under engineer oversight and or city official permit sign-off. Full replacement is subject to permits and or possible code upgrade requirements.
Painting by EPA Licensed Renovators (if lead paint is present) or others acceptable to Official:
In layman’s terms, the city official is looking for a paint vendor (EPA Certified Renovator if required) to do all work as per EPA Guidelines due to the fact that all fire escapes older than 1978 are presumed to have lead (EPA) unless identified as no lead or low lead by a licensed lead inspector. Entire building will be notified with signage and all precautions shall be taken to collect paint chips at grade. No sandblasting or power assisted scraping without full fire escape encapsulation under EPA Guidelines. All major connection shall be sealed from water intrusion before during or after painting. All escapes should be spot painted every 3-5 yrs and fully painted every 5-10 yrs or as needed or ordered by a Fire/Code Official.
Here is how to install or refit the seat bolts on a Harley Davidson so you can get back behind the bars and into top gear and down the road. In this video we use a Harley Davidson Fatboy, but the procedure can be transferred to other models in the H-D range including Heritage, Deluxe, Softail, Fatbob, Low-Rider, Sporters as well as most touring models.
The Softail Manual reads:
The pillion seat attaches with a single screw at the rear and engages to the drivers’ seat mounting screw at the front.
To remove seat, first remove passenger seat buy unscrewing the rear retaining screwing and sliding the seat towards the rear of the bike to remove the locating slots from the front seat mounting fasteners. Next remove the front seat mounting fasteners and slide the seat rearwards to free the tang at the front of the seat. When installing the seat, insert the tang at front of seat into the channel in the frame and install seat-mounting nuts. Install passenger seat.
An Important Note: After installing seat, pull upward on seat to be sure it is locked in position. While riding, a loose seat can shift causing loss of control, which could result in death or serious injury.
The rear-retaining nut is held in position with a sliding retention washer.
If the retention washer is removed, the retention nut will fall through the fender. The procedure below is used to lift the retention nut up through the fender and back in position, with either a piece of wire or on a cable tie for ease of replacement.
Slide retention nut over the tapered end of a cable tie so that the larger O.D. of nut rests on the cable tie strap eyelet or if using a piece of wire bend the bottom end of the wire to prevent the nut from falling off.
Feed the cable tie or wire up through fender hole.
Ensure the tab on the retention nut is located in the notched hole on the fender. When the nut is snug against the underside of the rear fender slide the retention washer on the nut from the opposite side the of the nut’s locking tab.
For more information visit www.gonetouring.com.au