French Stair Rules: No Fixed Dimensions, a Real Guard-Rail Law (CCH)

The requirement

France sets no fixed rise, going or pitch for a private house stair. The Code de la construction et de l’habitation (CCH) has no maximum rise or minimum going for a self-built home. Builders use the loi de Blondel instead: 2h + g ≈ 60–64 cm. That is a trade rule, not law.

Websites that quote you a fixed “French code number” are guessing. Or they are quoting the access rules, which is a different scope. More on that below.

The loi de Blondel. Take the rise (hauteur de marche) twice, then add the going (giron). The total should land around 60–64 cm. The range comes from NF DTU 36.3, the French trade standard for private joinery and stairs. No law makes it a minimum. But every French builder and joiner works to it, so use it.

Pitch and headroom are not fixed either. You may see a pitch range of about 25°–35° quoted, with a comfort sweet spot near 30°. That range comes from the same NF DTU 36.3 trade standard, not from law. Headroom over a private stair has no CCH figure. The access arrêté sets none either. Treat both as good practice, not rules you must prove.

Guard-corps & barriers

One figure here is real law, and it applies to everyone. It is not caught by the access let-out below. That figure is the guard-corps (garde-corps) height at a floor edge.

CCH art. R134-59 sets it. A guard-corps at a balcony, terrace, gallery or loggia must be at least 1.00 m high. It can drop to 0.80 m where the guard-corps element is more than 50 cm thick.

R134-59 has been in force since 1 July 2021, when the CCH was renumbered. The same rule used to sit in R111-15. That old clause is now scrapped. If you see “R111-15” cited, the number is out of date. The substance is the same.

Note what R134-59 covers. It is written for balconies, terraces, galleries and loggias. It targets falls from a floor edge. It does not name a stair flight. The CCH has no separate clause for a stair guard height.

You may see 0.90 m quoted along a stair flight. That figure comes from NF P01-012, a private, paywalled standard, not from the CCH. NF P01-012 was revised in November 2024. It is mandatory for all works from 1 January 2026. It is still a standard figure, not a CCH one. Check the current text if you need it.

The access figures, and why they are not the rule here

You will find sharp stair numbers for France online. Riser at 17 cm or 18 cm max. Going at 24 cm or 28 cm min. Handrail at 0.80–1.00 m. Plus a guard-opening gap rule, with no fixed figure confirmed here. Those numbers are real. They come from the arrêté du 24 décembre 2015 (accessibilité, bâtiments d’habitation), the access rules for housing.

But the law gives self-builders a let-out. CCH art. L111-7-1 frees an individual house built by or for the owner who will live in it from this whole set of rules. The access rules bind housing built for sale or rent. They bind collective buildings and ERP. They do not bind an ordinary self-build. If that is your project, those figures are not your rule.

Work it out on site

There is no legal minimum to hit. So sizing a stair in France means fitting the loi de Blondel to the space you have. Say your floor-to-floor height is 2700 mm.

1. Pick a trial rise. Try 180 mm. That is a starting point to test, not a rule. 2700 ÷ 180 = 15 risers exactly. So each rise is 180 mm.
2. Solve the going. Aim near the middle of the 60–64 cm band, say 62 cm. Then 2(18) + g = 62. So g = 62 − 36 = 26 cm.
3. Check the run. Fifteen risers means 14 goings. 14 × 26 cm = 364 cm of flat run. Make sure that fits your space before you commit.

Those numbers are one worked example of the convention. They are not code minimums, because France sets none. Swap in your own rise and let the calculator solve the rest.

Do it in 5 seconds

Related

• Part of the French building-codes hub. It shows how the CCH, the access let-out and the NF DTU standards fit together.
• Pouring the guard-corps footing or landing slab on the same job? See French foundations.

Sources

• CCH art. R134-59 — guard-corps height at a balcony, terrace, gallery or loggia (verbatim text, fetched directly). Read it at legifrance.gouv.fr.
• CCH art. L111-7-1 — individual-house owner-build exemption from the accessibility-construction regime. Read it at legifrance.gouv.fr.
• Arrêté du 24 décembre 2015 (accessibilité, bâtiments d’habitation) — the source of the stair figures that apply only to housing built for sale/rent and collective buildings, not a self-build. Read it at legifrance.gouv.fr.
• NF DTU 36.3 — the private, paywalled AFNOR standard behind the loi de Blondel convention range and the advisory pitch figures. Not independently verified against primary AFNOR text; the 60–64 cm figure is the one in universal professional use. Catalogue at boutique.afnor.org.

Read this first. The guard-corps figure above is from CCH art. R134-59, in force since the CCH’s 1 July 2021 recodification — a pre-2021 citation of “R111-15” for the same rule is superseded. The loi de Blondel convention and advisory pitch figures come from NF DTU 36.3, a private standard, not statute — they describe trade practice, not a legal minimum. The stair figures in the accessibility arrêté (24 December 2015) are real and current, but by law don’t apply to a house built by or for its own owner-occupant. Always confirm the current text on legifrance.gouv.fr before you build to it.