Garage Stairs Fire Code

I performed a pre-sale inspection on a house that has a garage below the house with a staircase that is open and has a door at the top of the stairs. My concern that I noted in the report is that the underside of the stairs were not drywalled and the sides. My thinking is that a fire could quickly travel up the stairs to the dwell above. They hired a contractor to perform the repair that I mentioned and he is calling them into question. Any thoughts?

P1190986.JPG

P1190987.JPG

P1190988.JPG

P1190988.JPG

As long as this door is a fire rated assembly I don’t see any problem(s).

The balusters looks a little far apart as well.

Perhaps some mid-span stringer supports would benefit this set-up as well…

In my area if the stairway is enclosed to create a storage closet with a door then the underside stringers needs to be drywalled.

No hand rail on the open side.
4 open treads with no guard/hand rail.

Are the stringers seated in brackets?
Is there a double plate?
Is there a fire stop between the stringers?

Is the door fire rated?
NOTE: There is normally a fire rating tag on the side of the door with the hinges. About 3/4 of the way down.

Post 3# looks correct. Good catch Stephen.
You would normally see 2 balusters for every tread.
A average tread being in width 7.5" - 8" inches

If the staircase is necessary for secondary egress (which is unlikely), then they would require fire resistant construction.

Interior staircases are usually a method of secondary egress that are necessary to access the first floor and an exterior door. This is not the case for garage stairs.

Jeff, the stringers into the flooring assemble should be fire/fume resistant?
That includes the fire resistant door.

The rest of the stair case falls under IRC building code compliance.

Was the upstairs access to a rental suite? (Remember where the Fonz lived?) If so, then yes, the local AHJ would likely require drywall, 3 ways switch etc… I ran into one of these, except the stairs in the garage went down, to a basement suite.