Alaska Residential Code: Stairs & Guards

Alaska adopted the AHFC Residential Code, based on the 2018 IRC, as a new statewide minimum for 1–4 unit residential construction effective 1 January 2026 — administered by the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation (AHFC). Before this, Alaska had no statewide code for 1–2 family homes; enforcement was local only.

No confirmed Alaska-specific stair or guard amendment has surfaced, so for a house stair the figures follow the IRC baseline — 7¾ in max riser, 10 in min tread, 6 ft 8 in headroom, 36 in min width, 34–38 in handrails, 36 in guards, the 30 in guard trigger and the 4 in sphere. See the US stair & guard rules for the shared figures. Alaska’s climate makes deeper frost-footing requirements plausible locally, but we haven’t confirmed a specific statewide figure — check with your local building department. No source URL was on file for this code at time of writing, so confirm the current edition in force where you build.