Safety defects: windows and railings

Safety defects in windows and railings are unfortunately common. How does a home inspection (bedek bayit) company check for them? Window height from the floor has its own standard, and it differs for a regular room, a safe room and a restroom, so it is critical to check each one along with everything related to railing safety. Meeting the standard is the contractor's responsibility, or the seller's if it is a resale property.

Either way, the standard sets a required window height from the floor, a minimum for the safe-room window and rules for the restroom window, and getting any of these wrong, in the window or the railing, can be genuinely dangerous. Window safety defects can lead to fatal accidents, so it is essential to have a home inspection for window and railing safety before any purchase.

What to check for window and railing safety defects

Does the window in your new apartment look too small? Can you see how easily a toddler could climb the railing? Maybe the height from the floor looks off and you cannot tell whether it meets the standard, or whether the railing itself is a safety defect.

Maybe the windows do not open all the way. Your apartment could have any of these defects. The first thought that comes to mind is usually: "even if I find out my windows or railing are not up to standard, what can I actually do about it? The contractor is not going to rebuild the whole structure or enlarge the window."

True, but if the contractor cannot fix a construction defect in a window or railing, you are entitled to financial compensation for the loss of value to the property and the harm to your quality of life.

The standard for window height and size

Construction defects in a window are not always a safety issue: sometimes the window is simply too small for enough light or ventilation, which is a quality-of-life matter. The standard requires a window whose area is at least 8% of the room's floor area, and a windowsill height of 1.05 m from the floor.

Bathroom ventilation windows matter too

Window height from the floor matters, especially in a safe room or a restroom, but there is another failure we see just as often: ventilation. The standard requires a contractor to install either a window or a mechanical vent fan in a bathroom or restroom, sized in proportion to the room but at least 0.3 square meters.

This kind of problem tends to show up with inexperienced contractors, and again, if the work does not meet the standard, the resident is entitled to a larger window or a vent fan installed instead. Beyond the windows themselves, it is well worth having building inspections done on your infrastructure too.

Can you spot construction defects in windows yourself?

There are things that are relatively easy to check yourself, like whether a safe-room window opens or its height from the floor, and if you spot a problem, contact us as soon as possible so we can help you get what you are entitled to. But for most people who are not home inspection engineers, checking whether the windows and railings actually meet the standard is hard, and checking whether the windows were installed properly is close to impossible: the first rain does not always reveal a dampness problem right away.

The contractor does carry a 3-year inspection and warranty obligation for window waterproofing, but if he simply applies silicone, that can get through one rainy season or several, sometimes outlasting his warranty period, without the windows ever having been installed correctly: with the right slope, in the right direction, with proper drainage and a sealing detail under the aluminum.

Leak detection: the underlying problem with all the standards mentioned here is that even a resident who has read about them cannot really measure whether there is a deviation, and cannot push back against a contractor's dismissive answers when something looks wrong.

An expert engineer's opinion changes that: the contractor is not only obligated to respond to it, but usually prefers to take it seriously rather than end up in court, since the opinion is already drawn up and ready to support a lawsuit.

Contact us at any stage for guidance and advice.