I called this company named "The Hand Rail Lady", Carol Anne from her ad on Kijiji because her business name was "The Handrail Lady"!!!! Therefore, I figured she would know all the codes for building one. I EMPHATICALLY told her that I needed a HANDRAIL TO BUILDING CODE for a Final Inspection of our Secondary Suite. As long as it PASSES CODE, I don't care as long as its inexpensive.
Carol Anne, the OWNER of the "Hand Rail Lady" came out and gave us a quote. Looked good so we gave her the go ahead. The railing was put in with 8" lag bolts sticking out at least 4 " from the railing. The railing itself looked really good but I had to email and call her 10 times to come down size the lag bolts because they will rip someones pants going up and down the stairs and I told her i'm sure that it's not to code to have the lag bolts sticking out that far. She never came and I could not get her to come fix it before the CITY INSPECTOR came for final inspection.
Not only did the City Inspector did not pass the 8" Lag Bolts, he laughed at the entire job! He said that the railing deoes not meet code because its NOT 42" HIGH, and, she installed HORIZONTAL BARS along the railing which MUST BE VERTICAL (to code) so that no one can climb it. As well, the Railing was not high enough! The Inspector assured me that this was obviously THE FIRST railing that she ever did because it was completely WRONG and not to Building Code whatsoever!.
The entire thing had to be ripped out and a new one (TO CODE) put up. I called "THE HANDRAIL LADY" and emailed at least 10 times to get her to come fix it and she wouldn't!
This is the reason that "MIKE HOMES" has a TV show! It is not the customers responsibility to make sure the job is to code.....IT'S THE CONTRACTOR that you hired and emphatically expressed that the Railing must be to code and pass final inspection.