Railing on garage staircase

[JIM MURPHY]

Please see attached picture. Even though there is a handrail on the wall, shouldn't there be a handrail with pickets on the garage side. This seems like a safety issue. Especially for children.31996

Thanks, Jim

[Jerry Peck]

To change the terminology to the correct terminology - yes, there should be a guard rail on the open side when there is a total rise of more than 30" (and there sure looks to be a total rise of more than 30" at that stair).

The top of the guard rail may be used as a handrail, but is not required to be meet handrail requirements when another handrail is installed.

The ends of the handrail are not shown, they are required to be returned to the wall (or floor or newel post) - are the ends returned to the wall or left 'cut off and open'?

The ends of the handrail are also required to be continuous from the lowest riser to the highest riser - the lower end of the handrail looks like it may not reach down to the bottom riser, but it could also be an optical illusion ... ?

[Garry Sorrells]

But they have all of that stuff to break the fall....:p

[JIM MURPHY]

Thanks Jerry

[Gunnar Alquist]

The ends of the handrail are also required to be continuous from the lowest riser to the highest riser - the lower end of the handrail looks like it may not reach down to the bottom riser, but it could also be an optical illusion ... ?

To continue Jerry's thought...

The foundation wall does not line up with the wall above. As a result, there may not be enough room between the lower end of the handrail and the concrete foundation wall if the handrail does extend far enough.

[Jerry Peck]

To continue Jerry's thought...

The foundation wall does not line up with the wall above. As a result, there may not be enough room between the lower end of the handrail and the concrete foundation wall if the handrail does extend far enough.

To continue with Gunnar's thought ...

That would mean the handrail would need to bump out and continue down at the foundation wall or the upper part of the handrail would need to be spaced out ... which then brings up another continuing thought ... what is the width of the stair at the lower, narrower, part by the foundation wall, which brings up another continuing thought (or we could just stop here and acknowledge that the entire stair, handrail, and guard rail needs to be addressed per the code :) ) ...