How Can You Tell Whether or Not a Stairway Meets Local Building Codes?
This is a difficult question to answer
and to find it, you will need to do a little research. The first thing
you should do is go to the stair
building code section of this website and then check out the
questions, in the
question and answer section.
As a general rule of thumb, if the stairway looks relatively safe and is
easy to walk up and down, without any general safety issues, then you
shouldn't have a problem. Obviously this is the easy way out, but simply
by applying a little common sense it should make sense.
Here are a few general building codes that are easy to check, however
and I stress this point immensely, building codes vary from city to city
and from county to county, so these might not be applicable in your
area.
1. Private stairways shouldn't exceed 8 inches in individual stair riser
height.
2. There is a minimum stair tread width that shouldn't be less than 9
inches.
3. Stairways should be protected by a guard rail no less than 42 inches
in overall height, measuring from the tip of the stair tread nosing.
As a general rule of thumb for safety, stair parts should be firmly in
place and if they are loose, then they should be repaired as soon as
possible.
Back To - Building Stair Questions
Back To - Stair Building Code Questions And Answers
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