You have been dreaming of a wrought iron spindle staircase for your Atlanta home. It is time for an upgrade. You might be wondering what the law says about residential remodeling. Do you need a building permit? Are there any special codes that have to be followed?

Here at The Iron Spindle, we have many years of experience dealing with Georgia’s building codes. Most of the work we do is in the greater Atlanta area, so we know the city and surrounding county codes pretty well. Let us set your mind at ease by reassuring you that a staircase remodel is not a big deal from a legal standpoint.

Building Permit Requirements

Atlanta and its surrounding counties are pretty reasonable when it comes to building permits. Your typical staircase remodeling job involving nothing more than replacing stair spindles or handrail generally doesn’t require a building permit. Homeowners within the city of Atlanta should know that Ordinance of 17-O-1307 states the following:

“No permit or permit fee is required for any repair work to a single-family, duplex, multi-family or non-residential structure with a total valuation of less than $10,000.00 provided that such work is otherwise lawful.”

Your typical spindle replacement project is not going to exceed $10,000. If you are completely removing your staircase and replacing it from the ground up, that’s another issue. You may need a permit for that.

Building Code Requirements

While you may not need a building permit to install iron spindles, all work done on your house must adhere to building codes. Atlanta and most of its suburbs have adopted the International Residential Codes (IRC) as standard. The IRC mandates, among other things, when railings are required.

It has been our experience that many Atlanta area houses are not compliant with every detail of IRC standards. Where updating your staircase and balustrade are concerned, this isn’t an issue for the most part. It will only become an issue if you decide to have other permitted work done on your property.

In other words, replacing the spindles on your staircase doesn’t require permit. You can go ahead and have that work done without worrying about building codes. However, you would be required to bring your staircase into compliance with code if you also decided to completely gut and remodel your kitchen. That’s because the kitchen work requires a permit. Any and all permit work requires you to bring the rest of the house up to code.

Your Choice of Contractor

We say all of this as a way of introducing the concept of choosing a good contractor with experience installing iron spindles in Atlanta. To be as straightforward as possible, your choice of contractor is important. You absolutely want a contractor with a proven track record of craftsmanship and quality. But you also want one who knows and fully understands the applicable laws.

Building codes do not exist to punish homeowners. They haven’t been put in place arbitrarily, either. Building codes are developed and adopted in order to ensure safety and integrity. From a safety standpoint, building codes are about protecting you as the occupant of your home.

The integrity portion is about guaranteeing that contractors do their work properly and with attention to safety and quality. None of us want contractors running around Atlanta doing shoddy work. Otherwise, the safety of homeowners will be in jeopardy.

To summarize, most staircase updating projects in the greater Atlanta area do not require building permits. However, any work done must comply with existing building code. That’s it in a nutshell.