Nova Scotia Building Code: Stairs & Guards

Nova Scotia runs its own NS Building Code, in force since 1 April 2025. It adopts the NBC 2020 as its base and layers Nova Scotia’s own regulation (N.S. Reg. 198/2024) on top, the same pattern as Ontario, Québec and BC.

For a house stair the figures match the NBC 2020 baseline — 200 mm max riser, 255 mm min run, 1950 mm headroom, 860 mm min width, 865–1070 mm handrails, 900 mm guards (1070 mm otherwise), the 600 mm trigger and the 100 mm gap. See the Canada stair & guard rules, and confirm any figure against the current NS Building Code regulation before you build.