Mississippi Building Codes: Stairs & Guards

Mississippi’s Building Codes Council sets a discretionary statewide minimum — currently the 2021 IRC, published effective 1 July 2024 — but actual adoption is left to local jurisdictions, who may choose from the three most recent council-approved editions. So the edition in force where you’re building depends on which of those editions your city or county picked, not a single fixed statewide number.

For a house stair, the figures match the IRC baseline across those recent editions — 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. No Mississippi-specific stair or guard amendment has been confirmed. See the US stair & guard rules for the shared figures, and confirm the specific edition your local jurisdiction has adopted before relying on it.