Building regulations around stairs and bannisters

[Kitten_mittens_63]

Hello,

I am having a 4 steps (4 risers, 3 treads) small stair done in my house. I have attached a top view drawing of the layout. The highest point is at the top of the drawing, and we descend to the second room via steps 1,2,3 then floor. 

 

Each riser is 20cm high, so the total drop is 80cm from highest to lowest point. Depth of treads is about 25cm, and width about 90cm. One thing to notice from the drawing is that the first step drops before the guard rail. It might seems odd to do that from that drawing alone, but it was helping with headroom (the ceiling of the room at the bottom is lower) and not having this stair too much in the middle of the room at the bottom. The guard rail on the left is necessary to guard from the drop (I think regulations requires it for any drop >60cm) and on the right is just a wall up to the ceiling.

 

My question is, based on that picture, is the handrail in red absolutely needed from building regulation point of view?

What makes me question that is that I have read the following:

- Handrails are needed when there are more than 4 consecutive risers (I assume inclusive, so 4 or more) but my guardrail starts one step down, so I am wondering if the top riser counts when applying this rule. https://blog.glwengineering.co.uk/uk-building-regulations-for-stairs-and-steel-banister-rails

- Handrail are not necessary along the two bottom steps. But it seems two steps is exactly the amount of steps the handrail drawn in red in the attachment would be covering, which makes me wonder if that is needed at all. https://www.wonkeedonkeerichardburbidge.co.uk/building-regulations-explained

 

Now none of these links are official documents I could use to make my case, that's why I am looking for an expert point of view on this as I think this layout is not ordinary and the application of the rules might be a bit tricky. I would really appreciate if someone could help. If the choice was left to me, I would prefer not putting a handrail in there as I think it opens up the room and makes it look nicer, but I don't want to mess up and have to fit a handrail after I find out it's not compliant.

Many thanks,

[Conor]

Pretty sure you'll need it as the wording states number of steps / rising before a handrail is needed. I don't think it matters that the top step is recessed. Fit the handrail, then remove after you've got signoff if it bothers you. Or chance it and have the debate with the building inspector when they do their final inspection. Ours was really receptive and clarified a lot of things for us as he acknowledged that the regs don't cover every scenario. For a while there was a long debate whether our house was a two or three story! The latter would have been a disaster for our plans.

Edited November 1, 2022 by Conor

[Kitten_mittens_63]

Thanks for the feedback. I tried to open the subject with the building inspector and will see what he says. Otherwise yes I will probably build it and remove it when done. Will post update. 

Thanks