Common bench seating structures (like brackets found at your local building supply stores) are not designed to be on decks higher then 2′ off the ground according to local building standards. The bench seats are actually considered “a climbing apparatus”. Children could climb on them and topple off the deck. The reason they are allowed on lower decks is that there is no railing requirement for decks below 24″.
In order to have these bench seats on decks over 24″ high you will need a back rest at least 42″ above the seat. This back rest needs to be securely fastened to the decks vertical uprights and not have any opening greater then 4″. As most of the bench seats are placed on higher decks it is important for the homeowner to know that this type of deck would not be granted a deck permit in Lloydminster and would not pass current code requirements.
Thanks so much to Kirk Kimberly, Owner of Simple Design Decks for this great safety tip. Visit Kirks website at www.simpledesigndecks.com Stay tooned to see if we can get some more deck tips from kirk.
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