A few days ago Steve did a blog about the safety hazard of a deck gate that swung over the stairs. These sorts of safety issues in and around homes are more common than one would think. The requirement for there to be landings on both sides of the door (at the top of stairs that have doors that open toward them) has been around for some time, but interestingly enough is not as all inclusive as one might think. For example the exterior door of a home, that is not the "primary" entrance to the home (like the door to the back yard) if it has two risers or less does not require a landing and the screen door could swing out over the stairs. Seems odd in some cases, but is another example of the "minimum standards" of the codes.
In older homes it is not uncommon to have doors that open over the stairs to the basement. This happened because there often wasn't a place to swing the door into the kitchen where the top of the stairs was often located. Sometimes the hinging of the door was changed to swing over the stairs to allow for better use of the kitchen space or to eliminate "fights" with other doors. Regardless, this installation is not safe; and, tumbles backwards down the stairs are a real possibility while trying to open the door when going up the stairs.
Repairs should be made to prevent falls down the stairs.
Charles Buell
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PS, for those of you that are new to my blog (or for some other "unexplained" reason have never noticed)
all pictures and smiley-face inserts (emoticons) (when I use them) have messages that show up when you point at them with your cursor.
DeCroe, is my "ethereal" home inspector assistant and occasionally flies into my blog and other people's blogs to offer assistance. To find out more about her beginnings just click on Raven.
