Real Estate Blog - Bellingham Home Inspector (King of the House) -- High Deck Safety

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Bellingham Home Inspector (King of the House) -- High Deck Safety

A home inspector is not specifically a code inspector. And codes are not retroactive, except in certain very specific instances that might involve a remodel. Sometimes plain old common sense has to be the overriding concern when safety is involved.

Even though we inspectors are not code inspectors, when we see high decks and wide gaps at rails on such decks, we get nervous. The rail around a high deck should be at least 36 inches high and the gaps have to be narrow. A sphere 4 inches and larger should not pass through the spaces. That means the gaps must be just under 4 inches apart. That protects kids from falling through.

The rail below is on a deck higher than 30 inches. This is very common at homes, but it should be upgraded.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

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Posted by Steven L. Smith, Bellingham, Wa. Home Inspector on 10/16/2009 02:49 PM

Comments (6)

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6 Comments on Bellingham Home Inspector (King of the House) -- High Deck Safety

OCT

Steve, I have to believe that even you could roll off that deck:)

Did the codes change for railings? About nine years ago we suddenly had to add extra bars on our office railings so that a child's head couldn't fit between them... and they were up to code when they were installed originally. Maybe they keep trying to make the Darwin awards harder to win?? :)

Shoshana,

I do not know just which year most areas reduced it from six inches to four inches. I think, since we are dealing with the smallest of kids here -- nobody else could get through -- it is not so much a factor of Darwin. With adults yes, kids no. I think it was a wise choice. Next, they need to state that balusters may not be horizontal, that would make them hard to climb.

Aha! Fortunately ours are vertical, so no need to do more. At the time it was challenging finding a welding company that would retrofit metal pipe railings (which are sunk into concrete steps, so we really didn't want to demolish everything and start again!).

I am old enough to remember when the allowable width was 8"---then it changed to 6"---and now it is 4." It is interesting that in some REALLY old houses the space was similiar to modern requirements (even though not required at the time) and then for some reason we started making them less safe----go figure.

OCT

Common cents! Are we talking about that change pot next to the register in the Jiffy Mart? Oh silly me, I misread, you meant common sense... Oh dear, that is certainly something that went by the way side isn't it?

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