Every stair is checked against one set of rules, chosen at the top of the Stair Builder. Switch the rules and the stair re-solves: the riser table, the default treads, the landing depth and the rail heights all follow.
The modes
- Commercial — the 2021 International Building Code, Section 1011.
- Residential — the 2021 International Residential Code, R311.7.
- Industrial — OSHA 29 CFR 1910.25, with handrails and kick plates from 1910.28 and 1910.29.
- Custom — a copy of any of the three with your own numbers. Every edit looser than the code it came from is flagged, and every sheet names the rules as the shop's own.
What is checked
Riser height, tread depth, width, angle, rise per flight, landing depth, open risers, nosing projection, a ship ladder's tread plus nosing, handrail count and height, guard height, and on a spiral the walkline and the headroom a full turn up.
Headroom is measured in the model: Stairworks looks straight up from the line of the nosings and over each landing, and reports the lowest clearance to whatever is drawn there — a beam, a slab edge, a duct. What is not drawn is not checked.
When a check fails
The failing row in the riser table says why. If you press Build anyway, Stairworks names every failing check and asks first. A stair built anyway is marked overridden in the window and on every sheet.
When to contact support
If a check disagrees with the code text you are working to, send the code section and the stair's sheet.