Short answer: New York City enforces ASME A17.1-2013 for elevator work, and ASME A17.3-2015 for existing devices. But neither applies as published. Both are rewritten by Appendix K of the NYC Building Code, and the code says so in as many words. If you are reading a plain copy of A17.1-2013, you are reading something the city has amended.
This trips up more people than it should, so here is the chain, quoted from the source in each step.
Step one: Chapter 30 names the standards
2022 NYC Building Code Section 3001.2, "Reference standards":
"Except as otherwise provided for in this code, the design, construction, installation, alteration, repair and maintenance of elevators and conveying systems and their components shall conform to ASME A17.1/CSA B44 as modified by Appendix K, Chapter K1, ASME A17.2, ASME A17.3 as modified by Appendix K, Chapter K3 ..."
and, at the end of the same section:
"Where this code makes reference to the nationally recognized standards ASME A17.1/CSA B44, ASME A17.3, and ASME B20.1, such standard(s) shall be as modified for New York City in accordance with Appendix K of this code."
That last sentence is the one to remember. There is no reading of the NYC code in which the unmodified national standard governs.
Step two: Chapter 35 pins the edition
Chapter 35 is the referenced standards table. Its row lists ASME/A17.1 at the 2013 edition and CSA B44 at 2013, under the title "Safety Code for Elevators and Escalators". Both carry an asterisk, and the note against it reads "As modified in Appendix K".
So the edition is the 2013 one, carrying the asterisk. Chapter 35 also references A17.2-2014, the Guide for Inspection of Elevators, Escalators and Moving Walks.
Step three: Appendix K rewrites it
Appendix K, Chapter K1, Section K101.1:
"As referenced by Chapter 30 of the New York City Building Code, the provisions of ASME A17.1-2013 shall be modified in accordance with this chapter. The section numbers correlate to those in the referenced ASME standard."
That second sentence explains something that confuses people constantly. When a New York City inspector cites "Section 8.11.1.6" or "Section 2.16.3", those look like ASME section numbers because Appendix K deliberately reuses ASME numbering. The number is an address in the national standard. What is written at that address, in New York City, may be the city's text and not ASME's.
Existing devices answer to a second standard
Appendix K has a separate chapter for equipment already in service. Chapter K3, Section K301.1 covers ASME A17.3-2015, the Safety Code for Existing Elevators and Escalators, and states that its provisions as modified "are applicable to all existing elevators and escalators."
Existing devices do not escape A17.1-2013 either. Chapter K3 revises Section 1.5 to read:
"Existing installations shall conform to the following requirements of ASME A17.1-2013: (a) Requirements 8.10, Acceptance Inspections and Tests; and 8.11, Periodic Inspections and Tests (b) Requirements 8.6, Maintenance, Repair, and Replacement; and 8.7, Alterations In addition, existing installations shall conform to Sections 1007.4, 1607.8.1, 3001.2, 3001.4, 3002.5, and 3003.2 of the New York City Building Code."
Requirement 8.7 is the one that reaches most signage work. It is the alterations requirement, and an alteration is what puts a fresh code data plate on a device that has been running since 1967.
Two things Appendix K adds that the national standard does not contain
Both are introduced with the words "Add new Section", which means they exist in New York City and nowhere else. A contractor working from a national copy will not find either one.
Test and maintenance data tags, Section 8.11.1.6. This is the section that puts CAT 1, CAT 5 and brake maintenance tags on specific pieces of equipment, and it names four separate locations for Category 5. We covered it in detail in where CAT 1 and CAT 5 tags go in a NYC elevator.
Balanced load on the data plate, Section 2.16.3.2.2. Appendix K adds a new subsection (f) requiring data plates to indicate "the weight required for balanced load." That is a New York City addition, which is why a balanced load data plate is a normal item on a New York job and an unusual one elsewhere.
Appendix K also deletes and rewrites Section 2.16.3.2.1 on capacity plates, requiring the rated load plus the one-piece load capacity, the Class C2 loading figure where it applies, and the number of persons calculated per Appendix D.
One date worth knowing
Appendix K was amended by Local Law 77 of 2023, with an effective date of 10 June 2023. If you are working from a printout older than that, check it.
Where this article stops
We have quoted New York City's code, which is published free. We have not quoted the text of ASME A17.1-2013 itself, because it is a copyrighted standard that the city references rather than reprints. So this article can tell you which edition applies and how the city modifies it. It cannot tell you what an unmodified ASME section says, and we are not going to guess at one in public.
If you have been cited and the citation names a section number, the number alone does not tell you whether you are looking at ASME's text or the city's. Appendix K is where you check.
What this means for the plate on the wall
A code data plate states the edition of the safety code a device was installed under. In New York City that is a live question rather than a formality, because a building can hold devices installed decades apart, each under a different edition, and an alteration adds a second code to the story rather than replacing the first.
That is why we stock the A17.1-2013 plate, the A17.1b-2013 addenda and the A17.1S-2013 supplement as three separate items, and a full plate that carries an original installation code and an alteration code together. Every price is on the page.
Not sure which one your device needs? The Code Finder asks two questions and gives you one product.