Proper handrail and guardrail for safe support
People really seem to confuse the two specific parts of a deck: a handrail versus a guardrail. They’re very similar, but they’re technically different. In the picture below, you can see a guardrail installed at the edge of a deck that stands above a very tall hill. If you were to jump over that guardrail and fall to the ground below, you’d get hurt. It is such a high drop that you’d be lucky to survive at all.
This is a perfect example of a guardrail that is really important because it can save someone’s life, in an example like this. The same type of risk or danger applies in the back of a typical Washington DC row home. If you walk off the edge of a deck, you’d get hurt especially where the decks are elevated. The guardrails are important because they help people avoid falling or accidentally walking off the edge of a deck, platform, or building edge.
Most of the deck guardrails that we see here around the city are built better than this example. They often do not often completely omit sections of the guard and generally have the proper spacing in a variety of different ways. We’ll talk about some of the ways that the building code has requirements and mandates around the design of guardrails. They don’t have many rules which say how the guardraal has to look in terms of specific design type or aesthetic details, and there are many different types of options.
They do, however, dictate the height, clear spacing between balusters, amount of maximum open space allowed at the bottom of the guardrail, and not just the height but both the minimum and maximum height of a guard rail.
The particular guard rail shown in the picture below doesn’t meet the building code because it has wide open spaces. It might help most full grown adults avoid walking off the edge of the deck, but it won’t help with little babies. This particular picture wasn’t taken here in Washington DC, I took this while out of town on a trip. In general, you shouldn’t let your children, little babies or adults who aren’t or can’t be responsible walk around freely. Here, in an example like this, it could cost them their lives.
We explain this to illustrate how guardrails are often set up as a function of safety. The building code considers safety one of their primary reasons for existence and one of their primary focuses. The building code might not sound like it’s all based around safety, but when you think really back to the root of most of the requirements, they do have to do with avoiding things that cause danger or increase risk of injury.
The boards at this deck are installed on an angle, so the edges of the board are cut on an angle, but in some cases where there is a lap or joint in the middle of the span of a board, it’s done with a half lap joint. This particular joint is also known as a halving joint or a halving lap.
This type of joint, in general, as relatively simple. Even though it’s created here at an angle, which creates a slightly more complicated miter, it’s still not a particularly complicated joint. It adds strength, also and is relatively simple to cut, even with rudimentary tools. This type of joint has been used for a very long time, as long as or as far back as we have records of carpentry, all the way back to antiquity. The picture below shows a different angle of that same X or cross joint.
Guardrails are required for most elevated walking surfaces, as we explained above, such as stairs, ramps, landings. These required, in many cases, apply to heights of 30 inches or more. Standard height requirements are at least 42 inches high, but some residential applications (R-2/R-3 occupancies) may use minimum 36 inch configurations. Opening limitations normally require a 4-inch sphere rule, so that no gaps allow the passage of a 4-inch diameter sphere through balusters or decorative elements.
Stair guards allow larger triangular openings at the tread-riser intersection, limited to 6-inch sphere passage. Utility access areas and specific institutional spaces may accommodate openings up to 21 inches. The space shown here though in these pictures does not or would not meet the definition of an utility access area.
The top of this guard rail is set in a horizontal position which makes it useful to rest to drink or set something down. Bar tops are made similarly, just slightly higher in most cases. In some cases, with handrails or guardrails, people intentionally treat them in ways that have slope to shed water but also, sometimes designers want to make it difficult for people to use it as a bar top or place where they can rest down a small plate or a drink.
Although it seems like a nice convenience, designers often want to not encourage people to use random surfaces outside of the intended areas of food and beverages. At this particular location if somebody were to rest a coffee mug or a small plate on top of this guardrail, it could be accidentally knocked off and in that particular case since the ground is so far below, the dish would likely be destroyed and also very difficult to go back down and collect.
Use a contractor who understands and cares about doing things right. Always, feel free to reach out to us here at Dupont Decks and Patios. We are happy to help with almost all steps of the deck building and design process. A backyard and outdoor space should make a significant, positive impact on both quality of life and home value. We can help with more than just decks, we also build patios, pergolas, ramadas, awnings, gazebos, arbors, and privacy fences.
Let us know about your ideas and talk to us if you have questions about possibilities. We are happy to participate in improving your outdoor space and quality of life! You can call us at (202) 774-9128. You can find us online at https://dupontdeckspatiosdc.com and you can email us there as well at https://dupontdeckspatiosdc.com/contact-us
