I just took the egress portion of the training and there is a question that got marked wrong that MUST be an error.
The question is T/F. A doorway at a stairwell that interrupts the stairwell’s continuity is not permitted
I marked it True but the correct answer is False according to the test.
Straight from Internachi “A doorway at a stairwell that interrupts the stairwell’s continuity is not permitted. The handgrip portion of the handrail should be graspable along the entire length of the handrail.”
I saw that just now. This is really a dumb and misleading question because if there is a doorway on a set of stairs there is going to be a landing… you cannot simply have a door along a set of stairs with no interruption of the slope. The landing for the doorway is what allows the break in continuity not the door itself.
I would question how you could have a door or doorway without breaking continuity of the handrail. If there is a door or doorway, and assuming all other requirements are met, of course there will be a break in continuity of the handrail.
The handrail is located on the opposing wall facing the cause of the break in continuity.
Consider a three story staircase with a doorway on the second floor, and the staircase continues on up to a third floor. No break in continuity is allowed.
I can picture that. But in my mind that’s not really a door or doorway “on” the stairway. It’s a door or doorway “off” the stairs, or adjacent to the the stairs. If that makes sense.
I don’t blame the OP for being confused. It is a stupid question in that it doesn’t give enough information to answer it correctly.
To the OP: This will happen occasional during training. But confusing situations will happen even more on the job. Bottom line; if it doesn’t feel right as you “traverse” the stairs, go ahead and put it in your report.
Based on the wording of the question I’m picturing a random door or doorway along the slope of stairs with no landing whatsoever so that doesn’t make sense to begin with. A set of stairs with a landing and a doorway at the landing and then more stairs on the other side of that doorway obviously would be acceptable but that’s really not what the question describes. It mentioned nothing about a landing. You would have to break continuity in order to operate the door and then go through the doorway. In that set up I really see those sets of stairs as two individual sets of stairs not a continuous set of stairs. When there’s a landing and a doorway and all that I picture it as two sets of stairs in reference to continuity for handrails
