Thread: Interior stairs, safety glass, fire protection

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Originally Posted by Clay White

Hard to tell in the photo but there is glass in between the treads (not safety glass/tempered). If they were safety glass/ tempered, would it then be okay to have the glass in between the opening?

Yes, if that glass was safety glass it would be okay. Open risers are allowed provided the space in the opening does not permit the passage of a 4" sphere, and the glass (safety glass) would fulfill that requirement.

My other question is:

The stairs are wood framed. Does the underside of the stairs need fire block protection ?

Not open stairs, only enclosed and concealed stairs.

The stairs protrude, for lack of a better term, into a bedroom - no kidding. Or is this okay to do?

And who would want *anyone* going up those stairs to be able to look into that bedroom?

Open stairs aren't compliant with the ADA, though. Private homes aren't required to meet the ADA, so it's not a defect needing immediate correction, but it's something to consider. Open risers can be a big problem for someone with an artificial leg.

Originally Posted by Alan Turner

Open stairs aren't compliant with the ADA, though. Private homes aren't required to meet the ADA, so it's not a defect needing immediate correction, but it's something to consider. Open risers can be a big problem for someone with an artificial leg.

True, but if you want to start 'considering' ADA stuff and potential problems based on certain handicaps ... those stairs are a bit of a problem for someone in a wheel chair too.

I really doubt you will be called to do an inspection on a house with someone with such a handicap and something as obvious as that is present - simply because that person (your client) would not make an offer on the house for you to inspect with something that big restricting their access.

Just applying some logic to that aspect.

By the way, welcome to the best inspectors board around. (I noticed that was your first post, I do not want to discourage more posts, keep posting.)

Understood, annd thanks for the welcome. Been reading this forum for several months and have learned a lot.

I'm not a home inspector, just worked in landscape design and architectural firms for about 30 years, and somewhere along the line got the name ADA Nazi because I got the job of reviewing plans for ADA compliance.

With the boomers aging and retiring and still having a lot of money, a home that is ADA compliant is going to be more desirable than one that isn't. And it isn't just the boomers, it could also be some young veteran who just got back from Iraq who has the artificial leg.

Making a house ADA compliant isn't the law, but it makes sense when you look at the demographics. It's not a life safety issue the way a bad furnace is, but it's going to be a bigger and bigger issue in resale value. And most of the time it's an easy design change, with little or no additional cost.

One of the architects I used to work for gave me a great lesson, just from something I heard while he was on the telephone. It was a commercial building, and the client was balking at the cost of making at least one door with panic hardware (always unlocked from the inside) "OK, let's do this thought experiment: There was a fire and the security guard died of smoke inhalation and I'm on the witness stand, and I get asked how much that door would have cost. And then he asks how much the decorative neon for that project cost."

The client bought the panic hardware lockset.

Originally Posted by Alan Turner

and somewhere along the line got the name ADA Nazi because I got the job of reviewing plans for ADA compliance.

Excellent. I kept trying to learn more ADA stuff.

With the boomers aging and retiring and still having a lot of money, a home that is ADA compliant is going to be more desirable than one that isn't. And it isn't just the boomers, it could also be some young veteran who just got back from Iraq who has the artificial leg.

True, BUT ... the only way to start off making a home ADA ... compliant (let's say 'accessible' instead of 'complaint') ... accessible is to start with a single story house.

Agreed?

Making a house ADA compliant isn't the law, but it makes sense when you look at the demographics. It's not a life safety issue the way a bad furnace is, but it's going to be a bigger and bigger issue in resale value. And most of the time it's an easy design change, with little or no additional cost.

Of course, in areas with larger populations, that means more land for a larger house as it cannot 'go up', it must 'go out', which means the same square footage house will cost a lot more.

One of the architects I used to work for gave me a great lesson, just from something I heard while he was on the telephone. It was a commercial building, and the client was balking at the cost of making at least one door with panic hardware (always unlocked from the inside) "OK, let's do this thought experiment: There was a fire and the security guard died of smoke inhalation and I'm on the witness stand, and I get asked how much that door would have cost. And then he asks how much the decorative neon for that project cost."

The client bought the panic hardware lockset.

Good for that architect. Most owners 'don't get it' until it is 'too late'. I've been trying to convince owners of similar things in similar ways for many years - put it in perspective and deliver it with a 2x4 ... that's the only way some people 'get it'.

I had one builder of $8-15 mil homes who did not 'get it' on window leaks, but his supt. did. After much resistance from the builder, and after a couple of window leaks where expensive wall finishes had to be ripped out and replaced - out of the builder's pocket - the builder 'got it' and started spending an extra ... get this ... $100 per window for additional and proper flashing. All leak problems vanished.

Sure, he spent about an extra $5-8k per house for all that flashing, but on one house on one window they spent nearly $15k making repairs and refinishing the walls ... one house ... one window ... and that house had several windows which leaked.