Easiest Method Possible To Measure Height Of Stairway Guardrail - Building Codes

in this video I will be providing you with a method that can be used to measure the height of a guardrail and this can also be used to measure the height of a handrail so a lot of people confuse the two a guardrail is going to prevent you from falling over the side of a stairway a handrail is usually going to be used steps for something that you can hold on to while you climb up or go down a set of stairs so guardrail prevents you from falling over handrails something to hold on to and there are guardrails that you can hold on to I understand that but the guardrail height of a guardrail is usually going to be 42 inches the height of a gripa bull handrail is going to be 38 inches so we won't be able to use the 38 measurement 38 inch measurement for a guardrail hope that makes sense so if I measure from the front of the tread the face of the tread so here we have we don't have a nose in on this we just have a regular tread and riser we're going to be measuring from the face of it to the top of the guardrail the it needs to be 42 inches now here's something I want to point out you're you're going to be safe sometimes if you're building a set of stairs and it's gonna get carpeting on it the inspector is gonna measure from the top of the carpeting is not gonna measure from the top of the rough framing so it's not gonna won't be a bad idea to make your guardrail a little taller than 42 inches so you don't have to rip your stairway apart so 3 foot 6 42 inches will be any measurement using from this line here as long as it is plumb or completely vertical so face of the tread to the top this thing can be higher just not be lower so here's an example of what I'm talking about cannot be lower here we have it lower but it can be higher than 42 inches now I do need to point out that you're gonna need to check with your local building department this 42 inches is a standard for most building departments and it sits in the International Code books but there is also an exception I found in there for 36 inches so check with them to make sure or build your guardrail a little taller either way so here it is again at 42 inches now let me show you how to use a level and a 2x4 or a scrap piece of wood that is straight and in this case we're just simply going to but the front of the 2x4 up against the front of the tread or the or the riser in this case and then level it make sure that it's plumb I should say this needs to be vertical and then our forty two inch mark again cannot be lower can be higher just kind of going around here giving you a different view of it top corner edge is what we're gonna be measuring from I hope this makes sense now in our last example I am going to use a nosing this has a one inch overhang here and again we are going to be measuring from the front top of the projected thread so if it is vertical the riser goes all the way up straight then you can measure from this point here if you have a nosy you're going to be measuring from this point here up forty-two inches and in this case here I actually made the top of the hand railing a little taller so I added three quarters of an inch to it so this line would represent 42 inches and then I made it 42 and 3/4 to allow for the carpeting or even if you're gonna put wood flooring on if you're gonna use 3/4 inch wood flooring then you'd better make sure that you compensate for it here so after these measurements are finished measurements I cannot stress that enough I actually worked on a house one time we built I built the stairs for it and then came back to look at it after the handrail was done and I knew right then I saw oh no you know they had it built the 36 inches 36 inches was the old building code and of course they raised it to 42 inches and of course I don't know why they raised it or why they changed it but they did and again this video is meant to provide you with the method on how to measure it and what most building codes are going to be asking for but it will be up to you to check with your local building department or building authorities to get the measurements that they require because they might be different you

Channel: stairbuilding

Views: 215,984

Rating: 4.6555891 out of 5

Keywords: easy, method, measuring, stairway guardrail, guard railing, handrail, building codes, step-by-step instructions, safety, how to build stairs, learning, do-it-yourself

Id: oPQXPC5Yoqw

Length: 6min 1sec (361 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 29 2019