Providing Accessibility Safety for a Building’s Rear Entrance

Suppose you just purchased a new lease on a commercial building in the heart of Charleston SC.

The equipment has been purchased and moved in and you’re about ready to open for business when a thunderstorm forms one night in the Atlantic Ocean just off the coast.

The next morning you arrive only to find the rear entrance flooded with about 4” of water and no drain in the ground to speak of because the door frame was built 4” below the ground creating a ditch.

Now what?

Two Issues:  Accessibility and Flooding

The problem was twofold: accessing the rear door and fixing the flood issue.  The entryway was built as a sunken walkway that made it difficult for any person or piece of equipment to easily access.  This caused major problems and quite often the workflow environment was disrupted during a rain, potentially leading to damage of the products stored in the building.  There was an option to remove the surrounding concrete and “dig out” the walkway, or even remove the door frame and replace it at ground-level, but options are quite expensive.

Instead, the owner contacted us at Handi-Ramp requesting a custom ramp – one that would allow easy access to and from the building while eliminating the flood issue.

The Solution: A Portable Aluminum Ramp

As a solution, we suggested an portable aluminum ramp that was porous, allowing water to flow through the ramp’s raised-button surface down into the pump (bottom right of picture), keeping the water far away from the door and out of the sunken walkway. In addition to being porous, the aluminum ramp will not rust when exposed to rain or flooding.

The building owner found the Handi-Ramp solution to be the most cost effective solution to his problem, not to mention the timeliness the ramp was available in.

If you have an elevation difference at your business at home, perhaps a sunken living room or sunken walkways, call Handi-Ramp for a tailor-made solution to your situation at 800-876-7267.