DonHester's blog

This is for the Women… Size Matters. A little history on Baluster spacing.

Submitted by DonHester on Sun, 05/17/2015 - 17:06.

This is for the Women… Size Matters.

A little history on Baluster spacing.

Wenatchee Home Inspections

Now I say this because of the Woman's maternal instinct and child safety concerns, now I know many males have this instinct also but it is more dominant in females.

Baluster spacing requirements as we have it now is designed for child safety and per Washington State HI SOP’s we are required to report baluster spacing more than 4 inches.

Washington State Home Inspectors standards of practice reporting requirements:

(Bold and underline is mine)

The inspector will:

(a) Verify

That steps, handrails, guardrails, stairways and landings are installed wherever necessary and report when they are missing or in need of repair and report when baluster spacing exceeds four inches.

Now as a home inspector we often find baluster spacing that exceeds 4 inches. So I did a little research and found some of the requirements from years past. This is no way exhaustive and I found finding much of this information was convoluted and difficult to find.

First, from the ICC (International Code Council)-

“History- The International Code Council (ICC) was established in 1994 as a non-profit organization dedicated to developing a single set of comprehensive and coordinated national model construction codes. The founders of the ICC are Building Officials and Code Administrators International, Inc. (BOCA), International Conference of Building Officials (ICBO), and Southern Building Code Congress International, Inc. (SBCCI). Since the early part of the last century, these non-profit organizations developed three separate sets of model codes used throughout the United States. Although regional code development has been effective and responsive to our country’s needs, the time came for a single set of codes. The nation’s three model code groups responded by creating the International Code Council and by developing codes without regional limitations; the International Codes.”

Prior to 2000, BOCA, SBCCI and ICBO each had their own model codes. These codes were regionally applied. In 1999, these three organizations started working together to prepare a unified code under the sponsorship of the ICC. The first set of “I Codes” were published in 2000 and included the International Residential Code (IRC) and the International Building Code (IBC). The IRC and IBC model codes have since been widely adopted by states and municipalities throughout the country in some version, often with local amendments. The I Codes are published every three years – the most recent publication is the 2012 version.

So lets start with some definitions of some of the code groups-

Uniform Building Code (UBC)

Building Officials and Code Administrators International, Inc. (BOCA)

The Council of American Building Officials (CABO)

From some digging around baluster spacing requirements by year;

Uniform Building Code (UBC)

1961/1976 UBC 9 inches

1982/1988 UBC 6 inches

1991 UBC 4 inches

Building Officials and Code Administrators International, Inc. (BOCA)

1975 BOCA- horizontal rails not over 10" apart, balusters not over 6" apart.

1978 BOCA 6 inches for both rails and balusters

1987 BOCA 6 inches

1990 BOCA 4 inches

The Council of American Building Officials (CABO)

1992 CABO 6 inches

1995 CABO 4 inches

So you can see by the 1990’s the 4 inch rule was pretty well in established.

I had a customer once say to me when I pointed out the baluster spacing “well didn’t that meet code when it was built?” I replied, “yes, but a child’s head does not care what code cycle you built it to”.

“Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.”

Will Durant

NCW Home Inspections, LLC is a Licensed Washington State Home Inspection service located in Wenatchee Washington serving Chelan County, Douglas County, Kittitas County, Okanogan County and Grant County Washington and the cities of Wenatchee, Leavenworth, Cashmere, Oroville, Cle Elum, East Wenatchee, Quincy and many more…

Your Wenatchee and Chelan Professional Real Estate, Home and Structural Pest Inspection Service

Instructor- Fundamentals of Home Inspection- Bellingham Technical College

www.ncwhomeinspections.com 509-670-9572

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DonHester's blog

This is for the Women… Size Matters. A little history on Baluster spacing.