May is National Deck Safety Month® and your spring maintenance checklist should include a thorough inspection of your deck and railings. It’s important to check their safety before the outdoor entertainment season begins with family gatherings and neighborhood barbecues taking place on your deck.
Here are a few items to consider as you check your deck:
- Check Connections: make sure all railing connections are secure. Anchorage points for wood railings often rot and may fail. Perform a stress test by cautiously pushing on the railing to make sure it doesn’t give at any point.
- Stair Railings: stairs with two or more stair risers should have a railing.
- Guardrails (railings): are required on “open-sided walking surfaces” higher than 30 inches from the ground, including decks. On single family homes, guardrails must be 36 inches high for decks (measured from the deck surface to the top of the rail) and 34 inches for stairs, measured vertically from the tread nosing.
- Strength & Spacing: both guardrails and handrails must be able to withstand at least 200 pounds of force applied at any point and in any direction. The balusters should withstand 50 pounds of pressure exerted over a one-square-foot area. Spaces between balusters cannot exceed 4 inches to prevent children from getting their heads stuck in the openings or falling through them.
- Benches: a bench installed around the perimeter does not serve also as a guardrail. The bench may be the required distance from the ground (36 inches), but without a guardrail behind it, which both the building code and common sense require, there is nothing to prevent someone from toppling backwards off the deck.
- Touchup with Paint: repaint or stain the wood, if necessary (the experts suggest at least every five years). Consider using paint with slip-resistant additives for the deck and stairway riser surfaces.
With regular inspections of handrails and guardrails, you can identify and correct problems before they become an accident you could have prevented. Making sure that your deck, handrails and guardrails are safe will help to ensure the safety of all who use them from toddlers to seniors.
Related Deck Safety Resources:
- The North American Deck and Railing Association (NADRA) provides tools for consumers to Check Your Deck® for the upcoming season, like the consumer checklist. Note: these deck safety resources are provided for consumer guidance only. Contact us to have a licensed, Professional Engineer perform a structural inspection of your deck.