I am asking about the red circled ends of the handrail.
How much should they extend beyond the contact point between the supporting posts and the contact point near the end of the handrail?
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1You have it colour like wood, so if wood I would like the contacts to be a few inches in from the end. Other than that, what looks good and is not in the way of catching hands/clothes.– crip659Commented Oct 3, 2023 at 14:55
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1@crip659 Code goes further than saying it just needs to be "not in the way", you can't compliantly terminate a handrail in the manner shown here.– Nuclear HoagieCommented Oct 3, 2023 at 15:10
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Why don't you just double up on the posts at the landing, and extend the railing at the top level so the handrail down the starts connects directly to it?– HuesmannCommented Oct 4, 2023 at 11:52
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because it will look ugly like hell :-)) The entire idea of this design is to lighten up the space that is relatively small for stairs and that becomes dominated by their presence if they are too massive and there is too many posts scattered all over the place– MiniMeCommented Oct 4, 2023 at 12:53
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1 Answer
As far as I know, none. The handrail needs to return to the wall/post to avoid a catching hazard. This is specified in IRC (2014?) 311.7.8.2:
Ends shall return to wall or terminate in newel post or safety terminals
When I replaced a handrail and chatted with the AHJ, they suggested this was mainly for firefighters, who have a lot of gear that might snag on a handrail and who operate in dark, smoke filled buildings and are in a hurry. But anyone who caught a bag on a protruding handrail will appreciate the return.
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so bottom line is that the less it protrudes the better it is. I am seeing lots of open end handrails on houzz.com and images.google.com– MiniMeCommented Oct 3, 2023 at 15:35
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Here is someone who does this for a living and who is quoting the code ottawadeckandrail.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/… as you can see the open end is allowed to protrude 300mm. Not my case but still....– MiniMeCommented Oct 3, 2023 at 15:38
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as far as the firefighters concern I would say that anything that is shaped to have a corner could become an obstacle for them including some half height partition walls which the builder included in my house so the handrail would be the smallest thing they can get hooked to– MiniMeCommented Oct 3, 2023 at 15:41
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@MiniMe That is mainly for handrails on solid walls and for Ottawa. If you live in Ottawa that is good, living someplace else might not apply/have different rules.– crip659Commented Oct 3, 2023 at 16:19
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I will finish them as short as I can. My handrails are attached with some L brackets so I am not sure how I am supposed to return them to the post -maybe pass the point of contact and return from there -I see it an useless code prescriptions. Even the return will protrude and it will be a problem for firefighters anyway– MiniMeCommented Oct 3, 2023 at 16:37