A home inspector’s job is to ensure your safety in a home that you are about to purchase, this includes pointing out hazards to children, whether you have them or not. There are issues that are caused by defective construction and materials, and there are those that are by design.
Now, this may come as a shock to you, but do you know that guardrails with a ladder effect are up to code? Okay, let me explain that further. Of course, we all know what guardrails are, they provide support and protection from falling over. The ladder effect is when the guardrails are designed with horizontal rails, horizontal cables, or any pattern that creates a “ladder”. And anything that has ‘steps’ can be climbed onto, especially by children who have a wild thirst for exploration.
I know you automatically assume that the ladder effect design on guardrails would pose danger to children as they can climb over it and fall over. But you might wonder, why wouldn’t a home inspector point it out in his report? Modern deck designs have this for aesthetic purposes but may have stair guards.
Truth be told…
The ladder effect was once prohibited in the International Residential Code in its 2000 edition. But that was the only time and has been removed in the following years.
R316.2 Guard opening limitations. Required guards on open sides of stairways, raised floor areas, balconies, and porches shall have intermediate rails or ornamental closures that do not allow passage of a sphere 4-in (102mm) in diameter. Required guards shall not be constructed with horizontal rails or other ornamental pattern that results in a ladder effect.
As you know, building codes are always changing. But professional ethics would require extensive research for every omission or addition. Thus, information will have to be provided on these slightly ‘ridiculous’ provisions. If you’re up for it, here’s a commissioned peer-reviewed report by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) on the subject which involves Doctors and Engineers:
Here are a few reasons why…
To save you the trouble of going through 176 pages of information, here are a few summaries from the report.
When it comes to height requirements:
• Building codes vary in the height above grade at which a guard is required, from 23.6 in (60 cm) to 39.4 in (100 cm).
• Building codes vary in barrier height requirements between 36 in (91.4 cm) and 42 in (107 cm).
As for tackling the hazard of climbing itself:
• Research shows that climbing plays an important role in the physical, cognitive, and social development of the young child, and that this is encouraged in many situations, such as playgrounds and school gymnasiums.
• Research studies of injuries to children are medically oriented and seldom explore any guard design issues. These studies extrapolate from smaller, longitudinal data sets, usually within a hospital or particular location, to give a national estimate of injuries. Such estimates typically are much larger than the percentage of injuries recorded in the latest injury data set.
• Studies of the climbability of different fencing designs have used inconsistent terminology to describe the designs tested, have used adult encouragement of children to climb the fences, and also have provided abundant safety padding to protect against a fall. Such contrived situations do not reflect how behavior might occur in a naturalistic setting.
And more importantly:
• No research study has yet investigated whether specific design elements can either entice children to climb or discourage them from attempting to do so.
• Children’s safety concerning guards cannot be guaranteed solely by guard design, but must also involve a program of education on when it is appropriate and when it is not appropriate to engage in climbing a structure.
The bottom line is that the International Code Council has found no evidence that climbable guards are solely responsible for children’s accidents and even pose very minimal cause to these kinds of hazards.
But wait…
At the end of the day, the decision to purchase a home is still up to you, whether the home inspector has written down obvious hazards or not. Quite frankly, even if the ruling on horizontal balusters was removed 21 years ago, most home inspectors still put it in their report as a safety issue.
Guardrails with a ladder effect design are not a defect. As you know, there are standard measurements for guardrails and it would be up to the home inspector’s judgment if one is safe or not. Just make sure to point out any potential hazard to your home inspector and make sure that he is one that you can trust; one that cares for you and your safety in your future home.