Well, ADA, ain't the "four letter" word that some builders and renovators have made it out to be...
On new construction there is abosolutely ***no excuse** for not being ADA complient however...
...in old buildings sometimes it can be very difficult and not feisable from strickly an economic view point...
I own two old buildings and have "changed the occupancy" in both... "Change of occupancy" is the kicker in the old buildings and in lots of small towns old buildings are being renovated and shops and restuarants are going in areas where they didn't use to be...
When this occurs, ADA kicks in... That's fine with me... I am fully supportive of ADA...
But sometimes it's the buildings themselves that just won't cooperate and for this reason the ICC Historic Buildings code book allows local zoning people to not hold to the strictest of standards...
Example: One of my buildings is an old Ford dealership that was built in the 30's and has a bathroom with a 32" door... Problem is that it's door header is metal and the door is located in a bearing wall... The walls of the bath room are concrete and support a poured concrete 2nd floor where the boiler once sat... I can't cut out the door way without seriously jeopradizing the structural integrity of the poured concrete 2nd floor...
So, I showed it to the zoning people and they agreed that I shouldn't try enlarging the door to ADA standard which I believe is 4 inches wider...
Now I could, of course, bring in a jack hammer and tie a new bathroom into the closest avilable sewer line which is about 100 feet away which would involve tearing up 100 feet of parking lot...
Cost to add ADA bathroom with 36 inch door: about $40,000 just to gain 4 inches of door...
The problem is that in most of these small towns it's moms 'n pops who are doing these renovations and mom's 'n pops just ain't that well capitalized to take old buildings and bring them 100% into complience...
Now, I don't know, WYSuzie, if you went to a small old town or what but I just thought I'd share some insights from "the other side"...
BTW, I am also renovating an old (1833) hotel and have figured out how to get it up to 100% ADA complient on the 1st floor where there will be a market and several shops... Took a lot of head scracthin'...