Why doing handrails by code is important

Stairways are one of the most frequent places for falls to occur, yet there is little literature available about stairway falls, or more importantly, how to prevent them. Over a million people are involved in falls every year, and over 12,000 die in stairway falls. In the last account I can find

• Over 1,000,000 people sought hospital treatment for stairway falls.

• Every 2,000 or so times one goes up or downstairs there is a minor mishap, or stumble in loss of balance that does not result in a fall.

• Minor falls happen once in every 63,000 stairway climbs or descents.

• There is an average of over 513,000,000 stairway ascents or descents for every death that occurs.

• Important to note that 75% of those who die in a fall accident is over 65 years of age.

• There are approximately 2,000 fatal falls in institutions annually.

Construction and Design

Stairway construction and design factors are also important elements of many stairway falls or collapses. If a stairway collapses, a structural engineer is usually the expert witness to engage to instruct the jury in defects in construction. Target defendants may be the owner, the builder and the architect who designed the stairway.

Stairways Defect

There are also common defects in step design such as irregular step dimensions, narrow treads, risers too high or too low, steps or stairs in unexpected places, slippery treads, confusing patterns on a tread and bad lighting over a stairway.

Up to code

The national average for handrail height varies between 34-38 inches. Taking this into consideration you have to stay stead with this height, like the opposite as what was shown in the photo above. our tool will hold your handrail for you level, and adjustable to what height you desire to make code.