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Stairs, landings and handrails
When does a deck stair need a landing?
A landing is not decoration. It is what lets a flight change direction, what stops a long fall from being an even longer one, and what the door at the top of the stair needs so nobody is standing on a step while it swings. Change the height below and watch them appear.
A landing is required at the top and bottom of every flight of interior and exterior stairs, with narrow exceptions, and a single flight may not rise more than about 3.7 m (12 ft 1 11/16 in) without one.
A landing has to be at least as wide as the stair, and as long in the direction of travel as the stair is wide, though on a straight run that length need not exceed about 1.1 m (43 5/16 in) to 1.2 m (47 3/16 in). Check the exact figure with your authority, because the exceptions for exterior stairs vary.
On a deck, the deck itself is normally the top landing and the ground is normally the bottom one. You add a built landing when the flight turns, folds back, or gets too long.
The drawing is a scale sketch. The numbers beside it come from the stair and landing rules, not from the picture.Turn JavaScript on for the controls. The drawing above is the opening state.
Why a landing exists
Three reasons, and they explain every rule about them.
- To break a fall. A long unbroken flight turns a stumble into a serious injury. The maximum rise for a single flight puts a floor under that.
- To let the stair turn. A flight can only go one way. Any change of direction happens on a level surface, not on a tapered tread, unless you are building a proper curved stair.
- To let a door open. A door at the top of a stair needs somewhere to swing that is not a step. A landing when provided may not be reduced in width by more than about 100 mm (3 15/16 in) by a door standing fully open.
On a deck, the deck is the landing
This is the part that confuses people reading the code cold. You do not build a platform at the top of a deck stair: the deck is the top landing, and the ground is the bottom one, so a normal deck stair needs no built landing at all.
Built landings show up when the stair has to fit a yard that will not take a straight run. Three shapes do almost all of the work:
- Switchback. Out from the deck, a landing, then back down beside the first flight. The smallest footprint for a tall stair, and the reason most second storey deck stairs look the way they do.
- Turning a corner. A few treads out, a landing, then down along the deck edge. Useful when the yard is long one way and short the other.
- Down the side. The flight runs back along the deck from its outer corner, with a landing partway down when it is tall. It hugs the deck and keeps the yard clear, and it is the longest walk.
How big a landing has to be
At least as wide as the stair it serves, and at least as long in the direction of travel as the stair is wide. On a straight run that length does not have to exceed about 1.1 m (43 5/16 in) to 1.2 m (47 3/16 in), which is the figure worth confirming locally because the exact number and the exterior stair exceptions differ between editions.
A practical way to think about it: a landing has to let a person carrying something stop, stand square, and turn without their heel reaching over an edge.
Built landings at the top or the bottom
A small built landing one riser up from the ground, or one riser down from the deck, is a design tool, not a requirement. It lets you fit a stair into a slope that would otherwise force an ugly grade change, and it is the usual fix when a ramp or a stair is one riser short of working. If you build one, it becomes a landing and takes on the landing rules, including guards where the drop demands them.
Guards on the landing
A landing is a walking surface. If it is more than 600 mm (23 9/16 in) above the ground beside it, it needs a guard like any other walking surface, and that guard is measured from the landing, not from the deck. On a switchback the mid landing is usually the first part of the stair that needs one.
- National Building Code of Canada, Part 9, Section 9.8.6, Landings, and Section 9.8.3, which limits the vertical rise of a flight. The exceptions for exterior stairs are in the same part and vary by edition, so the page says to confirm them locally.
- City of Edmonton, Uncovered Deck Design Guide, Section 4, Stairs, for the definition of a flight as the run between landings including the deck and the ground, and for the tapered tread limits.
Nothing on this page is an approval or a design. Code editions change and every authority having jurisdiction has the final word. Check your numbers with yours before you build.