TL;DR
A guardrail is the protective barrier required along the open edges of decks, balconies, stairs, and walking surfaces more than 30 inches above grade, built at least 36 inches high in most residential codes and 42 inches in commercial work. Infill must reject a 4-inch sphere so children cannot slip through, and the assembly must resist a 200-pound concentrated load at the top.
What it means
A guardrail is the protective barrier required along the open edges of decks, balconies, stairs, and walking surfaces more than 30 inches above grade, built at least 36 inches high in most residential codes and 42 inches in commercial work. Infill must reject a 4-inch sphere so children cannot slip through, and the assembly must resist a 200-pound concentrated load at the top. It differs from a handrail, which is the graspable rail on stairs; one assembly often must satisfy both rules.
Where it sits in the glossary
Guardrail is part of the Trade jargon group inside the ProFix Directory glossary. Browse every term in this category from the glossary index.
Why Ohio homeowners should know it
This is a term Ohio homeowners encounter when reading contractor quotes, hiring paperwork, or inspection reports. Understanding it well enough to ask one good follow-up question is usually all the protection a homeowner needs.
ProFix Directory keeps definitions short on the index page and saves the longer context — Ohio-specific rules, where the term comes from, and which ProFix tools touch it — for these per-term pages so the term is easy to cite and easy to share.
ProFix tools that touch this term
See also
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