By Greg Vanden Berge
The stair building code
was created for building safety. Before the building code and local city
enforcement ( Building Inspectors). Anyone could build a house. This
meant Uncle Earl who had just watched a couple of his friends build a
house down the street construct some sort of a dwelling. The next step
for Earl would be to help these guys for a day and now he is a
professional home builder. You get the point.
Stair Building Codes create the safety needed for one of the most
hazardous areas of your home. You might know someone who has fallen down
a stairway?
I lived in a house I built for 15 years and I redesigned the stairs from
a winder design to a T shaped set of stairs. Both sets of stairs were
built using the local stair building code for my city.
Wow I could not believe how many times my family members fell down the
stairs. I even fell down once. I was amazed. When I switched from the
winder to the T shaped stairway there were less accidents. My point is
that even using the stair building codes this is a dangerous part of
your house.Having a professional stair builder
install your stairs is great advice. Take it. For example this happened
to me on quite a few jobs. I get a set of plans from a architect who has
been designing houses for over 40 years. I looked at the stairway to
find out that he has designed a stairway that is to small for the length
of this part of the home. If I build the stairs using the plans that by
the way were approved from the local building department, I could have a
problem.
You are probably asking yourself how does this happen.
Aren't these people experienced professionals. Of course they are. They
probably have the U.B.C.(Uniform Building Code ) in their office
somewhere. Everyone makes mistakes here and there but this is one area
of the home where safety is a big concern.
Just look at it like this. The stair building code was
designed to improve the safety and reduce the number of accidents while
using the stairs. Over the years I have seen stairs poorly designed and
constructed. These stairs create problems for the owners of the
buildings not just the people that use them. Did I mention lawsuits.
This is one area where a lawyer will have a field day.
As a building professional I advise you to use the
stair building code first for safety and second to avoid lawsuits. Get a
Idea from some of the pictures I have taken over the years on problems
with stair building.
Use common sense while building or remodeling your home. It goes a long
way.
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