Remodeling Show Blog

As I mentioned last month, the 2000 International Residential Code (IRC) had 578 pages, while the 2009 version boasts an excessive 868 pages!  I could discuss one of the questionable provisions in those 290 new pages, but it seems there are plenty in the first 578 that have never gotten any attention.  For these provisions, one must ask…what good is a rule that is not enforced—just ink on a page?  I guess we’ve got to get recycled hamster bedding from somewhere…

Look at R303.4 from the 2000 IRC or reference R303.6 from the 2009 IRC. It doesn’t matter which, as it’s barely changed in nine years.  Did I mention lack of attention?

The leading sentence in this section requires all EXTERIOR stairways be provided an artificial means of illumination, and later it states that the light source must be located in the “immediate vicinity of the top landing of the stairway.”  If you’re bold enough, read further to the subsection and exception; you’ll find that the exterior illumination must be controlled from INSIDE the dwelling unit.  The only exception is if the lights are continuously or automatically activated.

Okay folks…I dare you…go to any new deck built under the IRC in the last nine years, and tell me if it complies with the exterior stairway illumination requirements.  Remember, a single riser is defined as a stairway.  If it does comply, I’ll bet my blog-writing salary that it’s only because the stairs were installed adjacent to an exit door, where the requirement for illumination actually does get enforced.

So have no tradesmen, designers, plans examiners or inspectors ever read this section before?  Was it too hard to understand?  Did “shall be provided” leave room for interpretation?  The questions could keep going, but the answer is simple…no one wants to clean up the mess after it hits the fan!

Will the contractor walk away if the owner won’t pay for electrical work in the small backyard deck?  Will the designer be so bold as to include lighting and electrical features in the deck structure he was hired to engineer?  Will the plans examiner demand an electrical permit for an extended circuit?  Will the inspector fail the final inspection because a two-step stairway at the outside edge of a ground-level deck doesn’t have a light?  Not usually.

The fact is…the International Residential Code is simply too much to fully regulate…and keep your job for the next day.  Even for building officials, leaning on “interpretation” as a means to ignore code sections is also not a good thing.

The low-voltage lighting manufacturers should love this provision, if enforced.  Generally, low-voltage lighting is an easy and attractive way to comply with this provision, without the pains of extending an AC circuit to the deck and a switch inside.  However, speaking of code provisions rarely enforced the National Electrical Code (NFPA 70), Article 411, regulates the installation of lighting systems operating at 30 volts or less—low voltage.  So we’re back to where we started.  Are these provisions going to be applied and regulated, or is it just ink on paper with no consistency?