Missing Stair Handrails Lurking Throughout Your Home
Picture this: you’re walking down your basement stairs carrying a load of laundry when suddenly you stumble. Reach out to steady yourself and… there’s nothing there. To comply with building codes, a staircase handrail must include a return – a piece of material that turns 90 degrees from the main handrail and prevents clothing or bag straps from catching on the railing. The handrail must be installed between 34 and 38 inches above the stairs and must be between 1 ¼ and 2 ⅝ inches thick. Finally, handrails must be grabbable and not slippery.
What many homeowners don’t realize is that if you have a staircase that has no handrail, you’re in violation of building codes. Handrails are required on every single staircase both inside and outside your home. The thing is, older homes often got grandfathered in before stricter codes took effect. But the moment you renovate or sell, these missing safety features become your responsibility. According to the IRC, any stairs with four or more risers require a continuous and graspable handrail. Even that single step down to your family room counts if it meets certain height requirements.
GFCI Outlets Playing Hide and Seek
Here’s something that’ll shock you – literally. That outlet near your bathroom sink or the one in your garage might be a ticking time bomb if it’s not properly protected. GFCI outlets are required for circuits installed close to water sources in bathrooms, kitchens, laundry rooms, garages, basements, and outdoors. They automatically cut power if they detect a current change, preventing electrical shocks.
Testing for the presence of GFCIs is easy. You need only to buy a GFCI receptacle tester for about $15, then plug it into each outlet. It will tell you if you have a GFCI on the circuit and/or other wiring problems. If anything comes up, you’re in violation and you’ll need to call an electrician. The scary part? Many homes built before the nineteen eighties are still rocking their original outlets, blissfully unaware they’re one wet hand away from a serious accident.
Deck Ledger Boards With Deadly Secrets
Your deck might look solid, but underneath lurks a common violation that causes catastrophic collapses. The deck ledger must be securely attached to the house using the proper fastening; failure to do so can make the deck unstable and increase the risk of injury. Additionally, you must install flashing between the ledger and the house to prevent water damage.
A building inspector informed us that incorrectly installed ledgers are the main cause of problems in do-it-yourself decks because the ledger may pull loose from the house. These decks can actually collapse, especially when loaded with people. The flashing issue is particularly sneaky because you can’t see the damage happening. An incorrectly installed ledger can cause the ledger to pull away from the house and the flashing to fail. This can lead to rot that will weaken your deck, as well as structural members in your home. Think about all those summer barbecues with friends and family – now imagine the deck giving way.
Bathroom Exhaust Fans Venting Into Trouble
You know that humid feeling in your bathroom after a hot shower? If it lingers, your exhaust fan might be doing absolutely nothing. Building codes require bathrooms to have fans that vent to the outside of the home through the roof or the side of the house. If your bathroom exhaust fan vents into the attic instead, moisture can build up and cause mold and mildew growth.
Venting the warm, moist air into the attic can cause rotting in the roof framing and sheathing, and may not properly rid the bathroom of moisture. That leads to mold and mildew. Venting to the attic dumps a lot of moisture into that space. The fix might seem simple, but it requires proper ductwork and potentially cutting new holes through your roof or walls. Building codes say you’ve got to vent the air from the fan to outside your house using a 4-inch-diameter vent pipe. Some inexpensive bath fans have 3-inch-diameter fittings. If so, buy a piece of converter pipe that changes the diameter to 4 inches.
Junction Boxes Hidden Behind Walls
Every electrical connection in your home should be housed in a proper junction box – but many aren’t. Splicing wires without a junction box. Don’t splice wires together with a couple of wire nuts and some electrical tape and call it a day. All wire connections must be inside an approved junction box. While you’re at it, you can’t hide a junction box inside a wall – it must be visible and accessible.
This violation is particularly common in older homes where previous owners or handymen took shortcuts. Junction boxes are installed mainly to prevent electric fires, by protecting electric connections in and around a building. Junction boxes come in all shapes and sizes depending on the size and type of the building and depth of wiring. The problem is that improper electrical connections are a leading cause of house fires. Whether you’re installing a new ceiling fan or an outlet, wire connections must be situated in a junction box (a metal or molded plastic box attached to a wall stud) to reduce the risk of house fire. That’s why many communities require that a professional make any alterations to wiring. Always call an electrician if you suspect you have faulty wiring in your home.
Kitchen Islands Standing Alone
That gorgeous kitchen island you installed might be more than a code violation – it could be a lawsuit waiting to happen. Installing a permanent structure in your kitchen, like an island, without wiring, is a code violation. This is because having cords stretching across walkways is a safety hazard, as people walking through the kitchen could trip while you’re using an appliance on the island. If you’re completing a kitchen overhaul with a new island, don’t forget about wiring outlets into it.
The other most notable change to the IRC 2024 (as well as the 2023 National Electrical Code) was a change to the requirement for outlets (called receptacles or receptacle outlets in the code) on a kitchen island or peninsula. In previous code versions, an outlet was required to be installed at the end of an island or peninsula of any size, no lower than 1′ below the countertop surface. Modern codes have become even more specific about outlet placement to prevent the dangerous extension cord situation that leads to trips and falls.
Ceiling Heights Playing Limbo
Do you need to duck your head when ascending or descending a staircase? Then your home is probably more than 40 years old, and it probably also violates building code. Most modern regulations require a minimum stairway ceiling height of 6′ 8″ to prevent taller people from hitting their head. Unfortunately, if your ceilings are too low, you may just have to live with the annoyance if there isn’t enough room to adjust the ceiling height.
This violation is tricky because it’s often not economically feasible to fix. There’s a high probability that your home is violating code if you need to duck your head when climbing up and down the stairs. Today’s regulations usually require a minimum stairway ceiling height of 6’8″ so taller individuals can avoid bumping their heads on the ceiling. The real problem comes when you try to sell your home or refinance – lenders might require you to address this issue, and that could mean major structural work.