Dr. Crisi
Not only are handrails covered by different national codes, but by organizations such as Major League Baseball. Shopping malls, schools, theaters, catwalks, and even residences are frequently covered by different codes even in the same jurisdiction! The local NOMA (Ornamental Metals Association) is often a good source for the best information. I know of a case where a man went to the local building department and was told the wrong information about the railing requirements by the local building department engineer. When the inspector from the same building department arrived, he denied the certificate of occupancy, because he knew the local code and the Engineer at that building department did not!!!! The rails were not constructed nor installed to code!
In my own home town, a local shopping mall spans the border of two townships and there are two different railing requirements for each end of the mall. In a good example; One town allows a bedroom sliding door to open on to an inground swimming pool deck, while the neighboring town requires the pool to have a 4 foot high fence all around it, with an alarm on the gate.
I was the inspector at a local county baseball stadium, and I complained about 20 inch high rails on the upper tier sky boxes. I was overruled because Major League Baseball rules called for an unobstructed view down to the home plate, and that called for a 20 inch high rail. I said that some fan with three beers in his belly would walk down the steps, with four beers and a tray of hot dogs in his hand, and fall over on to the fans in the regular seating below. On Opening Night of the first game, they were shooting Team Tee Shirts into the stands from a cannon on the pitcher's mound. a fan from the upper deck reached out a little too far to make a catch, fell and made a paraplegic of one fan below and fractured the shoulder of the fan sitting in the next seat. The guy who fell just got a broken arm.
So you see, that safety often takes second or even third place.
Joe Kane
Sure does, the IBC covers heights, ground clearance between the surface of the walkway to the bottom rung, baluster spacing and they even call out what type of load the railing should be able to handle. The IBC has several pages of information and if you then add on ADA or anything your local codes might throw in there it gets pretty crazy.
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