Balcony railings — the height and spacing checks

Guardrails get measured: height, the spacing between balusters (the 4-inch rule most codes work to), and whether the rail is solid when an inspector leans on it. A missing or damaged rail above a drop is never a small cite. What are inspectors measuring on your properties, and what retrofits have you done on older railings?

Older railings were built to older codes, and plenty of them are shorter or more widely spaced than what gets measured today. The lean test matters too — a rail can be the right height and still move enough to get written. If you manage pre-war or post-war stock, this one is worth measuring yourself before somebody else does it with a citation pad in hand. Has an inspector actually put a tape on your railings — and did the older ones pass or get written?