Railing inspection in an apartment before purchase

Why a home inspection matters, and how it works

Home inspection is an important process, maybe one of the few steps in buying an apartment you should never skip or cut corners on. A home inspection that catches construction defects is a critical stage in the purchase: buying an apartment with defects means paying to repair them, and in the worst cases, the safety issues behind those defects can cause real damage to the building or to a person.

As part of the process, an engineer visits the property and inspects it against parameters set out in advance, based on the Planning and Building Regulations, Israeli standards, and more. At the end, you get a precise breakdown of every element checked and its actual condition. You can use this document to negotiate the price down with the seller, and it also holds up in court if you ever need it there.

What the inspection checks in your railings

Railings are one of the important elements checked when inspecting an apartment or house before purchase. Beyond their role in the design, they are primarily a safety feature that has to meet specific regulations and standards to count as sound and usable. The engineer and their team check the railings, among other parameters, to confirm that the property you are buying is safe and meets every legal requirement.

Among the elements checked in this kind of inspection, the home's railings stand out, whether on a staircase, a balcony, or inside the home itself. Various regulations govern railings, all aimed at making sure they meet the standard and are safe. A railing may be a design feature, but first and foremost it is a safety addition, so it has to satisfy every requirement that applies to it.

When a home inspection engineer examines the railings, the checks are based on the Planning and Building Regulations and Israeli Standard 1142, and they cover items including:

• Handrail: a handrail that is not continuous must extend beyond the slope of the stairs by about 30 cm past the top step, and likewise past the bottom step, over a horizontal distance at least equal to the depth of a step.
• Roof railing: a roof railing is required wherever there is a level difference of at least one meter. On balconies or roofs, the railing must be at least 1.05 cm high.
• Railing components: the gap between the parts of the railing, and between the railing and the structure, must not exceed ten centimeters.
• Enclosed staircases: even where a staircase is enclosed by walls, it needs a handrail on at least one side; if the stairs are wider than two and a half meters, handrails are required on both sides.

Just as critical as any of this is how sturdy the railing actually is: if it is loose and moves more than 15 mm, it needs to be reinforced.

What is listed here is only a small sample. The full list of possible railing defects runs past 100, which is exactly why it is worth having an expert engineer check for this kind of safety hazard before you buy.