Overhead Clearance: EN 81-20 Car Top 1.0×0.6×0.5m Refuge, 0.3m to Ceiling, Counterweight Headroom, 3.5-4.5m Typical 1m/s

Overhead clearance (also called headroom or top clearance) is the height of the hoistway above the top landing floor level. EN 81-20 specifies minimum overhead requirements: (1) Safe working space on top of the car: when the car is at its highest point (highest terminal landing), there must be a free working space of at least 1.0 × 0.6 × 0.5 m on top of the car — this is the safety refuge for maintenance engineers on the car top; (2) Minimum distance between the top of the car or any equipment on the car top (door operator, car top fan) and the hoistway ceiling: at least 0.3 m; (3) Counterweight headroom: sufficient height above the counterweight frame top when the car is at the lowest position to ensure the counterweight does not crash into the ceiling when the car is on the pit buffers; (4) For higher-speed elevators, the overtravel distance (the distance the car can travel above the top terminal landing before hitting the final limit switch or buffers) increases, requiring more headroom; (5) Minimum total headroom for a standard 1 m/s traction lift is typically 3.5–4.5 m above the top landing floor level. Like pit depth, inadequate headroom discovered late in construction can be very expensive to correct, potentially requiring removal of slabs or roof structures.

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