Detroit stair railings
Bringing stair handrails and porch guards up to the Michigan Residential Code before a rental inspection, a point-of-sale inspection or a sale. Missing rails are added, wide gaps closed and low guards raised, usually without tearing out what is there.
Every city on this site builds under the Michigan Residential Code, one statewide code with no separate Detroit edition. For stairs and porches it comes down to a handful of figures. A handrail on at least one side of a flight with four or more risers, set 34 to 38 inches above the stair nosings and continuous from the top riser to the bottom one. A grip 1¼ to 2 inches round, or a shaped rail inside set limits, with 1½ inches of space to the wall. A guard wherever a porch, landing or stair side sits more than 30 inches above the ground, at least 36 inches tall on a landing and 34 inches along a stair. Gaps must stop a 4-inch ball, or 4⅜ inches on the open side of a stair, and the top rail must hold 200 pounds.
The state code's handrail trigger is four risers, but some local handouts say three: Warren's deck guideline, an older Detroit deck sheet and a Grosse Pointe Park rental guide among them. Ferndale's rental checklist words it a third way. Ask your building department which number its inspectors apply before deciding a three-step stoop can go without a rail.
In Detroit, item two of the city's 15-point rental checklist is handrails on every stair with four or more risers and guardrails on porches; a rental without a Certificate of Compliance can draw tickets starting at $400. Hamtramck's rental inspection wants every handrail and guard firmly fastened and able to resist a 200-pound sideways load. Grosse Pointe Park inspects every home that changes hands, and all violations must be fixed before the Certificate of Occupancy is issued. Southfield inspects one- and two-family rentals every three years.
Most failures are fixed without starting over. A missing rail goes on brackets set into studs, brick or concrete. Wide baluster gaps are closed with added pickets. A short porch guard is raised with taller posts and a new cap. Any permitted job in a house with an attached garage or fuel-burning appliances, such as a gas furnace, also brings Michigan's carbon monoxide alarm rule into play, so plan for alarms. Loose rails are handled under railing repair; full replacements are quoted under interior stair railings or porch and front-step railings.
How long does it take? Adding a handrail or closing baluster gaps is often a day or less. Raising a porch guard or replacing posts takes longer.
These often come up on the same staircase or the same visit:
Rusted posts reset in spalled concrete, loose rails re-anchored, broken welds and balusters fixed, often keeping the rail you have.
Read more →Oak, maple and paint-grade handrails, balusters and newels for bungalow, two-flat and split-level stairs.
Read more →Railings for concrete front steps, brick porch piers and wood porches, anchored to hold up through Michigan freeze-thaw winters.
Read more →Written quote
A quick description is enough to start.
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