NCC Handrail Requirements: Height, Where They Are Required, Extensions and Landings (2025 Guide)

The handrail question comes up on every stair. The answer is shorter than most people expect: one rail, on one side, with its top at least 865 mm above the line of the nosings. Everything else in this guide is about when that rule does not apply, when a second rail is needed, and what changes on an accessible stair. The figures are from NCC 2025 and AS 1428.1:2021, checked against the published text. The checker in section 3 draws them for the stair you describe.

1. The rule in one paragraph

A stairway or ramp needs a handrail along at least one side, running the full length of the flight. The top surface of the rail must be not less than 865 mm, measured vertically above the nosings of the treads or the surface of the ramp. There must be nothing on or above the rail that would break a handhold. The rule is the same for a house (Housing Provisions 11.3.5) and for everything else (Volume One D3D22). The NCC sets no maximum height for a house or an ordinary commercial stair. A maximum arrives only when the stair has to comply with AS 1428.1, which caps the rail at 1000 mm.

2. When a house stair does not need a handrail

The reliefs are listed in Housing Provisions 11.3.5(2). They matter because most of the arguments on site are about them.

• A change in level under 1 m. A stair or ramp whose total rise is less than 1 m needs no handrail. Three or four steps down to a garage or a sunken lounge are exempt. Once the rise reaches 1 m the rail is required for the whole flight, not only the part above 1 m.

• A landing. The handrail requirement attaches to the flight. It does not have to continue across a landing. A barrier still does where the landing is more than 1 m above the surface beneath.

• A winder with a newel post. Where a flight turns on winders and a newel post is installed to grip, the post stands in for the rail on that part of the stair.

• An AS 1657 stair. A stair serving a Class 10b mast, antenna, tower or the like may be built to AS 1657 under 11.2.7(a). It then carries that Standard's handrail instead (11.3.5(2)(d)). Until NCC 2025 Corrigendum 1 (29 October 2026), 11.2.7 covered any Class 10b structure, so a stair serving a swimming pool or a retaining wall no longer has this option.

A stair inside an apartment gets the same reliefs (Volume One D3D22(6)). The rail may also stop where a barrier stops. That is what lets a curved or spiral stair finish a couple of treads short of the floor.

3. Check your stair

Choose the kind of stair and set its total rise and width. The section redraws with the rail the NCC requires. The figures below the drawing are the ones a certifier will look for.

4. How the height is measured

The 865 mm is measured vertically, from the line that joins the nosings of the treads, to the top surface of the rail. It is not measured from the middle of a tread and not from the underside of the rail. On a ramp or a landing it is measured from the floor surface.

Because the nosing line is parallel to the rail, a rail set at 865 mm above the nosings is 865 mm above every nosing along the flight. On site the quickest check is a spirit level held vertically on a nosing up to the top of the rail. The Housing Provisions draw it in Figure 11.3.4b. The figure also shows the transition zone where a rail or barrier steps up from 865 mm on the flight to 1 m at a landing.

5. Commercial buildings: one side, or two

Once the total width of the stairway or ramp is 2 m or more, a handrail is needed along each side (Volume One D3D22(1)). The clause starts with the same 865 mm and the same continuity rule, then adds this width test.

The rail must be continuous between landings. A rail that stops at a landing and picks up again on the next flight is therefore acceptable. A gap mid-flight is not.

A step ramp, threshold ramp or kerb ramp needs no handrail (D3D22(2)(a)(ii)). A fixed platform, stairway or ladder built to AS 1657 to serve a plant room or the like is covered by D3D23 instead.

Two building types carry a second, lower rail:

• A primary school stair has one rail at 865 mm and another between 665 and 750 mm.

• A stair in an early childhood centre has one at 865 mm and a small-hand rail between 450 and 700 mm. The small-hand rail has a cross-section of 16 to 45 mm measured in any direction.

In a Class 9a health-care building, corridors used by patients need a rail on at least one side. The rail must be 50 mm clear of the wall and continuous where practicable. A Class 9c aged care building needs them on both sides of every resident corridor.

6. Accessible stairs: what AS 1428.1 adds

Some stairs must also meet clauses 8 and 9 of AS 1428.1:2021 (D4D4 and D3D22(1)(f)). This applies where a stair forms part of an accessway or a required exit serving an area that has to be accessible. The Standard tightens almost every dimension.

• Both sides. A rail is required on each side of the stair regardless of width (clause 8.2).

• 865 to 1000 mm. The top of the rail sits between 865 and 1000 mm above the nosing or the finished floor. The height stays consistent along the flight and across its landings. The exceptions are a 10 mm construction tolerance and the places where a rail transitions between flights or to a balustrade.

• A grip you can close a hand around. Circular or elliptical, 30 to 52 mm across, with at least 270 degrees of the top surface free for the hand. Edges are rounded to a 5 mm radius or more.

• Clear of the wall. At least 50 mm between the rail and the wall or any other obstruction. That clearance continues 600 mm above the top of the rail.

• Extensions. At the top, 300 mm horizontally past the nosing of the top riser. At the bottom, one tread depth on the slope of the nosings plus 300 mm horizontally from the last riser. Where a continuous rail turns at an intermediate landing, the inner rail needs no extension there, but it must be continuous.

• Ends. Turned through 180 degrees, taken to the ground, or returned fully to the post or the wall, so a sleeve or a bag cannot catch.

• No vertical sections. The rail follows the angle of the nosings. Where a balustrade is required higher than the rail, both are provided.

7. Handrails and barriers are not the same thing

A handrail is for holding. A barrier is for not falling. It is required wherever the drop from a stair, landing, balcony or deck is 1 m or more.

On a flight the barrier can be as low as 865 mm above the nosings, the same as the rail. That is why on many house stairs the top of the balustrade doubles as the handrail. At the landing the barrier rises to 1 m. Both the Housing Provisions and Volume One allow a transition zone where the height steps up.

The two functions come apart in these cases:

• A barrier is higher than a hand can comfortably reach. This is common with a 1 m glass balustrade on a flight.

• A wall-mounted rail runs along a stair that has a wall on that side and needs no barrier at all.

The openings, climbability and wire rules for barriers are in our balustrade guide.

8. Landings

A landing must be at least 750 mm long, measured 500 mm from the inside edge where the stair changes direction. Its gradient must not exceed 1:50. In a house, a landing is also required where a doorway opens onto a stair or ramp with a change in level of more than three risers or 570 mm. It must extend across the full width of the doorway.

A stair serving only an attic or a storeroom that is not in daily use may have a 600 mm landing. The handrail does not have to continue across a landing. Even so, a continuous rail is the better detail on any stair used by the public, and it is required on an accessible stair. Provisions: Housing Provisions 11.2.5; Volume One D3D15.

Check the rest of the stair

Riser, going and the 2R + G relationship are in our stair requirements guide. The free NCC stair calculator tests a flight against the right table, with the clause beside the verdict. No account is needed. Some questions are not covered by the checker above, such as a rail on a curved stair or a Performance Solution for an existing building. For those, ask AEC Assistant and it answers from the Code with the clause cited.

Sources: ABCB Housing Provisions 2025 clauses 11.2.5, 11.3.3, 11.3.4 and 11.3.5 and Figure 11.3.4b; NCC 2025 Volume One D3D15, D3D17, D3D18, D3D22 and D3D23; AS 1428.1:2021 clauses 8.2 and 9. Figures verified against the ABCB's published NCC 2025 text on 10 September 2026 and checked again on 28 September 2026. This article is general guidance; the building surveyor or certifier for your project determines compliance.