The 5 Most Common Ways Your House Is Not Up To Code

Starting with the most common failure in code requirement that we see, is handrails that fail in two ways.

1. Not covering the full length of stairs. As demonstrated in this photo a handrail is to be continuous for the “full flight of the stairs. It is way too common to see handrails that start where they are needed but end too soon.

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2. Another common way handrails fail inspection is when they are placed too low or too high. Many states code for height begins at 34 inches as a minimum and ends at 38 inches as a maximum height. Here in Utah residential homes begin at a minimum of 36 inches.  

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Proceeding in no particular order many failed inspections come from the railing in homes and lack of them.

1. Guard rails or railing are required anywhere that a drop of 30 inches or more occurs. Houses will typically have these on front entrances, porches, decks, retaining walls.

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2. Guard rails for residential homes must be 36 inches in height, many older homes are found with railings with a 32 inch height as per code use to be and an inspector may fail a house for this reason.

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3. A four inch spherical ball must not pass through any openings on the railings. This one we find many inspectors are picky about. So double check that your current railing doesn’t have any gaps bigger than four inches.