Spaces in deck rails unsafe for children

Q. Our house is in escrow, and the buyers are demanding we change the railings on our deck. Their home inspector says the deck rails are not safe for children because the spaces are too wide. A friend of ours is a contractor, and he says the 12-inch spaces were legal when the house was built and therefore do not have to be changed. Is he right, or do we need to alter the railings?

A. The home inspector and your contractor friend each have a valid point. Wide spaces in deck railings are definitely unsafe for small children. Making the spaces smaller, to comply with current child-safety standards, is strongly advised, but this does not mean you are required to make the change. If the current spacing was legal when the home was built, upgrading them now is a matter of negotiation between you and the buyers.

Repair requests of this kind commonly take place after a home inspection and often give rise to disagreements. However, upgrading the safety of deck rails is not as expensive as other issues often reported by home inspectors. Therefore, this is something you might want to do to promote the sale of your home. That's a choice you'll have to make, depending on the circumstances of your transaction.

Regardless of whether you or the buyers pay for this improvement, child safety clearly outweighs the issue of rigid code compliance. Instances of child injury and death have resulted when spaces in deck rails are too wide, which is why the code requirement was changed.

During past decades, spacing requirements for safety rails have been changed incrementally. The first standard was enacted in 1979 with a 9-inch minimum spacing requirement. In 1985, allowable openings were reduced to 6 inches. Then in 1993, a maximum spacing of 4 inches became the current rule. Why these code changes were made in gradual stages, rather than with one logical adjustment to a childproof size, is a challenge to common sense but typical of bureaucratic practices.

Q. I was installing some insulation in my attic this week and discovered what appears to be a serious problem. The sheet metal flue pipe from the forced air heater is in contact with the roof framing, and the wood has been blackened by heat exposure. When I discovered this, the heater was on, and the flue pipe was much too hot to touch. Do you agree that this is a fire hazard?

A. What you describe is definitely a fire hazard. A furnace flue pipe is commonly required to have a minimum clearance of 1 inch from any combustible material. To verify this, you can check the clearance requirement printed on the vent pipe itself. If you find that any of the framing members or combustible roofing materials are too close to this vent or are in direct contact with it, immediate correction is needed, especially since the wood framing has already been affected by heat exposure. You should have this repaired by a licensed HVAC contractor to ensure compliance with all pertinent safety requirements.

• To write to Barry Stone, visit him on the web at www.housedetective.com, or write AMG, 1776 Jami Lee Court, Suite 218, San Luis Obispo, CA 94301.

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