North Carolina Residential Code: Stairs & Guards

North Carolina builds to its own North Carolina Residential Code (NCRC) — own state-authored code cycle, not a direct pass-through of the ICC calendar. The current 2018 NCRC (based on the 2015 IRC) has been in force since 1 January 2019 and remains current: the next edition was indefinitely delayed around March–April 2025 and, as of this writing, still hasn’t taken effect. Given how long that delay has run, it’s worth a quick check that North Carolina hasn’t since adopted a newer edition before you rely on this page.

For a house stair, the figures match 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. No North Carolina-specific stair or guard amendment has been confirmed. See the US stair & guard rules for the shared figures.