i've been working on my stairs up to the second floor.(inside stair case-if that matters) for years i hated the old one, and now that it's been torn down, i can see that i was right about it. anyway i'm in the process of gathering matl to build the new one. it'll be steel tubing and stainless stell cable/marine fittings. but after visiting the local building regs site, i'm still trying to answer a question that has me holding off untill i get an answer. what is the minum(and max) legal hight a hand rail must be? untill i started searching for the answer, i would of thought this would be a "no-brainer". i do have a secondary question- the regs are pretty clear about the openings, or rather the spaces that a child could squeeze thru. that is 4" max. my coustruction is going to be square tubing as uprights, bolted to the stair treads.....round tubing as the hand hold. and square tubing as streachers spanning uprights low, about an inch above the stair treads.. this will create a triangle open space about rise 8"" run 10" . does this space need to conform to the child proofing "4 inche max opening" rule? and if so, what would be a slick way to accomplish this?
hand railing hight
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Not sure which jurisdiction your in. Since most places in the US are now under some version of the '06 International Building Code, I'll refer to that code. Sec. 1013.3, Exception 1 states, "The triangular openings formed by the riser, tread and bottom rail at the open side of a stairway shall be of a maximum size such that sphere of 6" in diameter cannot pass through that opening."
For guardrails at stairs that also serve as a handrail, the height shall not be less than 34", and not more than 38" as measured vertically from the leading edge of the tread nosing. (Ref. IBC 1013.2, Exception 1.)
I would strongly recommend you take a trip down to your local building dept. to verify this information. Many local jurisdictions that adopted the IBC also amended the IBC during the process.
Hope this helps.
For guardrails at stairs that also serve as a handrail, the height shall not be less than 34", and not more than 38" as measured vertically from the leading edge of the tread nosing. (Ref. IBC 1013.2, Exception 1.)
I would strongly recommend you take a trip down to your local building dept. to verify this information. Many local jurisdictions that adopted the IBC also amended the IBC during the process.
Hope this helps.
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that helps a lot, and thank you bill. i do realize that the final arbitor will be the local building inspections office. but your information is an excelent start..and has lowered my anxiety level about this project to a manageable level.