step up at door

[bmafg]

It is common to have a front porch with the front door threshold a step up from the porch. Is this configuration acceptable on interior doors? For example, if you have a corridor ending at a door to a room which is 7" above the corridor, can the threshold for that room be displaced up 7" and be code legal?
jim

[MountainDon]

I'm not certain off hand if an step up/down right at an interior door would be permitted according to codes without doing research. However, I would not want to have a step down as one passed through  as sooner or later somebody will have an accident. Perhaps not you, as you built it and live there. But someone else would not be expecting a step. Steps are used inside as in a step down into a sunken living room. Just my opinion unless it proves to be a code problem.

[phalynx]

I can't think of an instance where there hasn't been a step up to get into the door.  Every home I have ever had had at least a 4" step up before the threshold.

[MountainDon]

step ups going in, yes, but going from room to room once inside, no.

[phalynx]

I completely misread that first sentence.  To answer the actual question, I don't see how that would be an issue.  A garage would have a step down from the inside.  A converted garage to a living room would not have to be brought up tot he same level of the house to be up to code.  A sunken living room is permitted as well.  I am sure there may be one strange place that may have some rule against it but it is actually common place.  Whether there is a door or not, I don't know how that would make a difference.  But then again,,, I couldn't even read the first sentence right..

[MountainDon]

Where I see it as being a potential problem is going through a door, that opens away from you, and having a step down into the next room right there with no landing area. The difference between this and a sunken living room or other elevation change is that the door obscures the step as you approach the door from the 'wrong' side.

As I said, this may just be me.

[John Raabe]

If a door opens out onto a stair of three or more risers it will need a landing. If you have just one or two risers you can easily get close to the door and open it. Two risers amounts to a "stoop" not a stair. That's the practical spirit of the code.

This is a case from BC Canada:
http://209.85.173.132/search?q=cache:AANNM98H1iAJ:www.housing.gov.bc.ca/bcab/bcab1400/1452.html+door+opening+onto+stair+code&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4&gl=us&client=firefox-a

To answer the initial question. Yes, it is common to have the porch deck lower than the house floor and front door threshold. This is usually only an inch or two to allow the threshold to extend over the deck but keep water on the porch from getting inside.

If you can, it will be best to have interior doors open inward when there is a step down into another room or hallway. This prepares the unknowing visitor. Better yet is to take the step 3' away from the doorway forming a landing. There is something awkward about a door right at a step no matter which way it swings.