Common Sense vs. Building Codes

---a mild rant, with nothing but rhetorical questions, and way too long. (written during a tall cuppa coffee)---

I have been involved one way or another in the architecture biz since about 1986. building codes, dealing with inspectors, bosses, budgets, etc.

So yesterday I took some drawings down to the Town Hall to get a building permit. I'm taking down an old rusted cast iron rail around my porch and putting up a wood rail, among other things. Existing rail, which has kept people from falling to their death for 75 years, is 31 inches high. I designed the new one to be just over 36", which was good enough for most of my career.

The guy asks "How tall's the new rail?" I told him. "Nope, gotta be FORTY-TWO inches. three foot six.." he says.

Said they just changed it, 2009. Any drop over 6 feet, gotta be 42 inches.

My mind flashed back to two things. Frank Lloyd Wright's "Fallingwater" in Pennsylvania. The most-visited private residence in the country (besides the White House). It gets 120,000 visitors a year. The balcony rail, which juts out over a waterfall and is some thirty feet from rail to back-breaking fall, has a rail of about twenty-four inches. I remember it comes to somewhere mid thigh. You could sit on it. No one's fallen yet. ten thousand people a month...

As a practical example it, arguably the most-tested railing in a private residence (in a decidedly precarious situation to boot) is about 18" TOO SHORT. and yet no news reports of people falling to their death on a regular basis. heck, even once.

The other thing that came to mind...

I took a train and subway to work for the better part of twenty years. You can stand in a public place, with a pressing crowd of strangers behind you, your toes inches away from a four foot drop onto an electrified rail, as a train comes in at 35 miles an hour.... with no railing

but sitting on my deck, with a lemonade, I need a rail that is higher than my head when I sit down, and higher than my waist when i stand.

Thankfully, Yankee practicality prevailed. I asked if we could use my tape measure when he came for the final inspection. wink wink. he laughed.

you see, my dimension worked out so that I could use a certain number of boards, etc. and he said "ah, heck. just pay the thirty five dollars and we'll call it fine"

seriously, though. 36 inches was bad proportion, but 42 inches is just stupid. any person who falls over a 36" rail deserves to, and making it 42" is just ridiculous. the porch would look like an adult play pen.

I really hate things designed to save me from myself.

So glad I don't have to deal with that frigging building code every day anymore.

---

here's another rant.

having drinks with my former boss the other day. both a little schnockered. into the men's room, and i say (as we LEAVE, per man-rules) "you know that lower urinal, and the lower phone in a bank of phones, which are there per the handicap accessibility regulations?" he says (perplexed) "yeah?"

"ever actually use the low urinal, or the lower phone?" he says "yeah, of course." ...and you had no problem using it, right?

so, my question. the lower urinal (or phone) looks pretty stupid, and basically says "you, in the frigging chair, that's your special urinal". instead of being inclusive, it make the difference obvious, and (my real problem) just looks totally stupid. like someone made a mistake.

"so," says I, lubricated sufficiently with adult beverages, "since everyone can use the lower ones, why not put them all at the same lower level?"

he's looking down at his feet, focusing on where his next step needs to be as we head back to the bar... "genius" he says. "pure genius"

coffee's done.
time for "work"