Stairs - Online resources

[Triassic]

I'm starting to look at stairs for my new build, I need three sets, each with a half landing. Having measured the stairwell I find it larger than necessary, given I need to comply with Building Regs (rise and go). This means that for in every case I'll have to extend the landings to meet up with the top of the stairs. (You'd have thought the architect would have considered the staircases when doing the design! But lets not get lost down that rabbit hole !!).

 

Can anyone recommend any online staircase design calculator / visualization software I could input my dimensions, as a starter for ten!

 

At some point I then need to get someone to fabricate the steel work needed, I'm thinking of something like this.......

 

 

[nod]

Our architect cocked up ours also 

I rang him when I was fitting the floor joists 

He got back to me a said Yep itch it up 300 mil Oom

 

What ever spec that you go for I would get the fabricator to do the measurements Any mistakes then become there problem 

[RichS]

You can just increase the "go" on each tread in order to make it suit the opening. This will also make it an easier staircase to climb.

This is assuming that the measurements are not stupidly large.

[Ferdinand]

2 hours ago, Triassic said:

I'm starting to look at stairs for my new build, I need three sets, each with a half landing. Having measured the stairwell I find it larger than necessary, given I need to comply with Building Regs (rise and go). This means that for in every case I'll have to extend the landings to meet up with the top of the stairs. (You'd have thought the architect would have considered the staircases when doing the design! But lets not get lost down that rabbit hole !!).

 

Can anyone recommend any online staircase design calculator / visualization software I could input my dimensions, as a starter for ten!

 

At some point I then need to get someone to fabricate the steel work needed, I'm thinking of something like this.......

 

 

 

I find the interactive designer at Stairbox useful, and quite sophisticated. But may not be up to what you ultimately need.

 

Quite a lot of options etc.

 

https://www.stairbox.com/stairbuilder.html

F

 

 

[ProDave]

As others have said. Don't extend the landing, increase the going of each stair to make them less steep. Beware there is a maximim going as well as a minimum.  We did this and our stairs are about 38 degrees rather than the maximum allowable 42.

[Ferdinand]

I missed that.

 

I always say make stairs more relaxed to fill gaps, but I would also say keep an eye on maintaining a measure of consistency if more than one staircase will be seen as being conceptually part of the same run stairs, where a variation might throw guests off.

 

Would not imo be a problem if eg there was a main staircase, then one to further bedrooms - there is a conceptual break in the type of area within the house and they will be seen separately.

 

Just keep an eye on that if you go that route.

 

F

[Triassic]

Drawing the stairs out, I have a 170mm rise and a 315mm going (tread), at an angle is 30 degrees.

 

We've  decided that a single metal spine could be too bulky, so we're now looking at something like this...

 

Can anyone suggest a supplier?

Edited October 6, 2019 by Triassic

[Ferdinand]

16 minutes ago, Triassic said:

Drawing the stairs out, I have a 170mm rise and a 315mm going (tread), at an angle is 30 degrees.

 

So relaxed it is almost horizontal...

Edited October 6, 2019 by Ferdinand

[ProDave]

I have only just had a better look at this, and your stairs confuse me.

 

I have recently been working in a house very similar to this.  But it is so much simpler.  the one I was in had the entrance door on the mid level single storey bit.  It then had a simple half flight staircase down to the bottom of the 2 storey bit, and a half flight staircase up to the top of the 2 storey bit.

 

Accepting your entrance is on the "lower ground" floor, I don't understand why you have 3 flights of stairs?

[Triassic]

@ProDave  Our front door is at ground floor level, one set of stairs go down to a basement, then there are two sets of stairs to the first and second floors.

 

 

Edited October 6, 2019 by Triassic

[ProDave]

Just now, Triassic said:

@ProDave  Our front door is at ground floor level, one set of stairs go down to a basement, then there are two sets of stairs to the first and second floors.

 

You have lost me now.  I thought you had your entrance level.  Up half a flight to the left hand "bungalow" section, then up half another flight to the upstairs of the right hand bit.

 

I have obviously been misunderstanding it up until now?

[Oz07]

Always better to have more room than less. Can knock a tread off or pitch down. Other way round it's squeaky bum time when bco walk round. Not that they actually do anything nowadays apart from look at your level threshold

[Ferdinand]

TBH I think I need to see a plan to say more that is useful, and that is not needed if you now have the info you need, @Triassic.

 

From the elevation you have a 4 floor house. One of which is basement, and three more to the top of the ‘tower’.

 

I am not currently clear whether it is a single staircase all the way up etc.

 

 

Edited October 7, 2019 by Ferdinand

[Red Kite]

We are doing something similar and have quotes from a few suppliers. Not decided but Zakuna seemed competitive and flexible. Also talked to The Metal Staircase Company (or something like that) at Excel last weekend and will get them to quote Cost depends a lot on materials, glass, balustrades etc.

Hope that helps - we should decide in the next month or so but wont see stairs until we are nearly finished.

[Triassic]

I’ve had a couple of quotes back for our steel staircases and both have included a sum of £3,000 for detail drawings and structural calculations.  
 

Are detailed drawings and structural calcs normally required? If so, would it be cheaper to get someone local to do these? £3000 sounds a lot

Edited November 16, 2019 by Triassic

[Triassic]

Will building control expect to get a copy of the structural calculations for the stairs?

[PeterW]

I’ve never seen them asked for. There seems to be an assumption that it’s been done correctly, only thing I’ve seen checked is the going and the headroom. 

[eandg]

Apologies for piggybacking on the thread but I have a question about stairs. We plan on having dogleg stairs with a half landing. Stairs 995mm wide, with an extra 300mm or do gap between them so a total width of 2290mm. Should we give any (and how much) additional space in our plans to allow for them to be fitted? Hope that makes sense!

[recoveringbuilder]

Don’t talk to me about stairs! Our architect made a right pigs ear of the position of the staircase, nobody noticed, staircase company came out to measure up, still didn’t notice, we had a temporary staircase in for me getting upstairs and used all the time by the builders, still no one noticed, 3 months later when the staircase company decided to get to design they suddenly noticed we didn’t have enough headroom, we’d paid over £5k to the kit company for the staircase but when this problem was finally noticed the staircase company wanted another £5k+ to produce one which would comply, by this time we were in the closing stages of the build and didn’t have that kind of money left to spend on something we thought we’d already paid for! Architect wouldn’t  admit liability and pay for the amended staircase, we tried everything to come up with a solution to come within an acceptable budget and ended up with a straight flight a quarter of the way into the room. How I now regret that decision, it’s a bloody eyesore and has changed the use of the room altogether, I should have a large room with a dining table in the middle not too near the stove, instead I don’t know what to do with it, had another architect out who said he’d never seen one as bad, he measured up the headroom in its current position and was still not certain it would comply so suggested I get bc out for a look, the problem is that I agreed to having it where it is and the architect (after threatening him with solicitors) eventually paid £1100 for the extra handrail and glass. I was hoping that bc would come out and say it wasn’t right in which case I could have gone back to the original architect and claimed him for putting it right however when the officer came out he looked at it and I told him we still didn’t think it was compliant, he had no tape measure and when I offered to get him one he mumbled something about it not being as simple as that and in his opinion it was fine and he would pass it, he said it had nothing to do with him that it looks ridiculous but it was safe as far as he was concerned! 
had it not been an oak staircase it would have been tossed out by now and we would have started from scratch but it’s too big a loss to do this as we certainly couldn’t replace it with the correct one made in oak, how many times I have kicked myself for agreeing to have it where it is and I know we are going to eventually have to do something with it!