1

Can balustrades be removable or should they be fixed? I am a tenant and the current property has a balustrade in the attic bedroom that is removable and made from thin off cuts of wood. This makes it very wobbly and you can't lean on it. The stairwell goes from the attic to the first floor. Is this legal??

isherwood
  • 137,324
  • 8
  • 170
  • 404
Gail
  • 11
  • 1
  • 1
    In North America, typical code for balustrades that protect you from a fall is that they resist 200# of force in any direction. You could try to convince your landlord to upgrade, but they don’t always comply. – Aloysius Defenestrate Jul 03 '23 at 18:14
  • Pictures would help. Anything is removable. It is a question of how easy, particularly if it can be done accidentally. Height matters (there are minimums) and also spaces between pieces (can't be so big that people fall through, but there is also a middle size where there is a problem because a child's head could get stuck). – manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact Jul 03 '23 at 18:15
  • 2
    If you change the question to, "Is it legal for a balustrade in a rental property to be wobbly and incapable of supporting a human leaning on it" you will get more definitive answers. "Removable" can be a lot of things, and that's not what seems to matter here. – jay613 Jul 03 '23 at 19:37

1 Answers1

2

If you can remove it with your hands, it's illegal. If you can fit a 4" ball between two balusters, it's illegal. But none of this matters if you have a child and they fall through and have a brain injury. Get a $1 drill bit and a $1 worth of screws. Make sure that the screw is long enough to bite 1" into the wood after it has left the baluster. Drill 2 holes at 45-deg at the top of the baluster and 2 holes at the bottom. Fasten in place with the screws. Then call your landlord.

Attics are not free space for landlords to fit bedrooms as they like. There are rules about minimum floor space, ceiling height, fenestration (windows), egress, etc. Making stairs to an attic converted into a bedroom is very difficult, as there are even more rules regarding clearance, landings, riser height, etc. If you call code enforcement on your landlord, they might declare the attic bedroom illegal and the apartment uninhabitable. Not saying that you should not do that, just giving you the lay of the land.

Cheery
  • 5,226
  • 5
  • 19
  • 1
    Tenants usually have limited choice of changing/fixing what is part of the structure/place, they might have a choice of paint colour, if that. Calling the landlord is first, then calling the local building department if it is unsafe to live there. – crip659 Jul 03 '23 at 19:55
  • No. Protecting your child from permanent brain injury goes first. You then deal with whose responsibility it is to fix and bring up to code. – Cheery Jul 03 '23 at 19:57
  • Protecting children is first priority. Someone's else own the building, you get the children out first, then get CPS, building/health department, lawyers involved if landlord/owner does not fix. Unless the stairs are blocked for children, weak or strong balusters probably don't matter much. – crip659 Jul 03 '23 at 20:47