It's 2009, I wish everyone a blessed, joyous and prosperous year.  One of my goals for 2009 is to blog more often, so I guess I'm off to a good start with my first blog of 2009.

There are many aspects to a home inspection, but the one I take most to heart is occupant safety.  I want everyone who lives in the house and everyone who visits the house to be safe.  As they say, "Safety first."

I came across this at a home inspection late this past summer.

The problem here is railings.  Railings consist of two common safety issues:  Hand rails and guard rails.  Hand rails can help an occupant keep their balance while going up or down stairs.  This is especially true for young children and the elderly.  Then there are guard rails.  Guard rails keep young children, or anyone else for that matter, from falling off the stairs to the surface below and injuring themselves.  Guard rails also should have a span of no more than 4-inches so that small children don't get their heads stuck in between the guard rails, or even worse, fall through the guard rails to the surface below.

Of course the stairs in this picture have no hand rails or guard rails.  This is a definite safety concern.  This was a bank owned home, so maybe the previous occupants were remodeling but just ran out of money.  Regardless, this needs to be remedied as soon as possible.

I hope this gives you a little more information about a home inspection and its value.  Be safe out there.

Posted by Joseph Lang of Pillar To Post Professional Home Inspection

(c) 2009 Joseph Lang dba Pillar To Post