Stairs. Stairs. Stairs. Why so many stairs? Can’t I just take the elevator?
Nope.
Alright so you have some stairs, check, and you want something to hold onto while you walk up those stairs. Check. And you’re like - hey sounds like I need a handrail. Check. So you go to buy a handrail and realize “wait how long of a handrail do I need to buy?” Uncheck.
That’s what this blog is about - how long of a handrail do you need? Short? Long? Longer? Ok, those are all great descriptors, but I think we are going to have to do some measuring. Like with numbers.
So go grab your tape measure, find your pencil, and grab your safety glasses, because we are going to do some measuring!
Alright, measuring a straight flat line isn’t too hard. But your stairs aren’t a straight flat line. They’re more like a bunch of platforms jumbled together. So to measure them, we need to know a few things about stairs.
First, stairs have two important dimensions: rise and run. Rise is how much higher each stair is from the previous one (it’s how high you have to lift your legs each step). The Run is how far forward each step takes you.
Second, you need to find the nose. So you can measure nose to nose. Alright, so the nose of the stair is simply the front of the stair. See right there. Not too hard.
Ok so now you just need to measure from the first stair’s nose to the nose of the landing at the top. I even drew you a picture. See! Nose to Nose.
Sweet we’re done right! Nope. Almost done. You see you need to have something called overhang at the top and bottom of the rail. It’s just bonus handrail that your local building code usually requires. So I drew you another picture:
Handrail standards generally call for 12 inches of overhang on both ends of the rail. But your local code inspector is signing off on this so ask him what he wants.
Ok so do some math: add your two overhangs to your nose to nose measurement and that’s how long your handrail needs to be!
Anyway, I hope this helps and as always if you have any questions please reach out to info@conceptfusionmanufacturing.com. And seriously don’t poke the other guy's nose with the tape measure.