Conversation Pit in deck

[monkeybaby]

Working on a house with a large wrap-around deck. One area of the deck in the rear will have a sunken circular 'conversation pit' built into it. It will be approx 8' in diameter with steps down. It will be 30" total vertical drop from the deck to the bottom of the pit, with a bench wrapping around the inside edge of the pit at 15" in height. We will have one step down to the bench, then another step down to the bottom. So each step will be 7 1/2". The steps will all be in a line (even though the middle step is actually the bench surface).
My questions are: will this count as an egress stair and require a handrail? and will the minimum step width have to be 36"?

 

[Inspector Gift]

Commercial or Residential?

 

[Sifu]

I would vote no.

 

[monkeybaby]

Commercial or Residential?

Residential. Single family house.

 

[monkeybaby]

I would vote no.

That's what I'm hoping. But code-wise it's a bit of a grey area.

 

[steveray]

I'd probably say one handrail....Unless you want to give up on all deck stairs....Unless you want to make the risers taller than allowed and then they are clearly not stairs.....

 

[monkeybaby]

I'd probably say one handrail....Unless you want to give up on all deck stairs....Unless you want to make the risers taller than allowed and then they are clearly not stairs.....

Yes. I did think about that. Up to three risers and a handrail isn't required.

 

[mtlogcabin]

I would ask for one handrail for safety. What you have is a hot tub with no water so I would not be concerned about the 36" minimum width requirement for a tread.

 

[Mr. Inspector]

I don't know if Philly has changed anything in the PA code. Ask the plan reviewer or put it in your plans and see if it gets approved.