Fear of heights, reasonable or not..

[puntloos]

So my house design has a full height hallway, so the skylight is 8.5m above the ground floor.  I'm wondering if people with a fear of heights will enjoy standing on the loft walkway or not since it indeed is 6m straight down.

 

 

 

And if we're thinking about safety, accidentally flying over the rails.. any thoughts on that one?

[CalvinHobbes]

Yikes, that would be too scary for me. 

[ToughButterCup]

I used to live in a set of flats with a similar stairwell, slightly more generous proportions.

 

One poor visitor had to face the outside wall, put her hands against it  and 'slide' up the stairs, eyes tight shut, cheek against the wall. The 'well' had a lift she would use in preference,  but needed to crawl across the walkway to my front door. 

[joe90]

Thing is, are you designing the house fir yourself or visitors?, as long as it meets regs regarding height of handrails etc, and those living in it are ok what is the problem. Yes blocks of flats/offices have similar. The lightwell is a great idea. (I don’t like dark poky designs).

 

[ProDave]

You just need some walk on glazing at the top of the stairs to get the best view of the drop.

 

When we built our first house we had an interesting argument with building control over the height of the handrail around the gallery landing.  They tried to tell us the handrail needed to be 1100mm tall. Their argument was "landing" only covered 1 square metre at the top of the stairs and this was came under "Other"

 

I asked them to show me something to document that fact in building regs and it took them a few weeks before the backed down and passed it.

 

I would not be surprised if they try something similar here.

[markc]

Very few people have a true fear of heights, the majority find looking over edges intriguing.

the chances of accidentally going over a handrail are very slim … probably less than being struck by lightening.

if the feature will diminish your enjoyment of the house then change it, if your concern is for the possible visitor then keep it.

[SteamyTea]

17 minutes ago, markc said:

Very few people have a true fear of heights

True in my experience.

But some of us suffer from perpetual vertigo, which is not the same thing at all.

Did not stop me rock climbing, but then you are looking for your next handhold/best route, and what is below is irrelevant.

[Bitpipe]

I have an 8m high atrium also but only access from first floor. However when I was putting up the light fitting there it was a bit hairy.

 

As long as you have 900mm ballustrade then you’ll be fine - you could increase to 1100mm if you want to give more feeling of security.

 

[puntloos]

I'm pretty sure I don't have irrational fear of heights, only a healthy respect. My wife is slighty more towards the "fear" side. But I do remember that as a tall person (I'm 1m92) my waist is at 100cm so if I "lean against" a 90cm ballustrade I would worry I could easily slip over. 

 

Does anyone know if glass is much worse than "wood"?

 

Perhaps something like might help

[markc]

Frameless glass terrifies those with a fear of heights, a contrasting balustrade gives a fixed solid looking point to focus on.

I used to live in a penthouse and a good friend who was scared stiff of heights got to enjoying the view and even looking over the glass parapet.

living with the void I’m sure you will all get used to it quite quickly 

[Bitpipe]

When we were doing plastering works, we had to pull out the temp stairs and looking down an unprotected 8m void into the basement was quite unnerving. 

 

Even though I enjoy climbing, I do not like heights and I remember just before the frame went up being unable to get past the second lift of scaff when it sat above the basement, there was one gable tier above which would have been a nice 12m drop onto the slab. 

 

Gives you a renewed respect for Tom Daley & co who regularly fling themselves off a 10m diving platform 

[Bitpipe]

53 minutes ago, puntloos said:

 

 

Very pretty - we have two lifts of a a similar cantilevered 'stringless' stair system.

 

It was not cheap and the wall needed additional bracing to support it (as it was timber stud).

 

When do you think this house is actually getting built and how is your budget looking?

Edited September 7, 2021 by Bitpipe

[PeterW]

1 hour ago, puntloos said:

Does anyone know if glass is much worse than "wood"?

Yes… I used to work in a building in Nottingham that had a set of “suspended” meeting rooms hanging from the ceiling of a huge atrium - you accessed them via walkways with glass sides. The ones on the first 2 floors got used, the higher you went, the more “availability” you found as the walkways were about 3m long and the meeting rooms had floor to ceiling glazing …. 

[Pocster]

7 hours ago, ProDave said:

You just need some walk on glazing at the top of the stairs to get the best view of the drop.

You’re my best mate 

[Mr Punter]

Unless the handrail is supported independently you will need the glass to be toughened and laminated.  I saw on some balconies near me they only had toughened.  A panel failed and that prompted the developer to get the whole lot changed.

[puntloos]

One suggestion I've heard is to make the 1st floor 'circle' tighter. Currently the stairs and walkways are exactly same size straight above each other. Would moving the lower floor say 500mm inward on every side be helpful? I'm not sure if you could even see the "500mm ledge" one floor down while 'staring into the abyss' let alone if it would even help with a sense of safety?

[Adsibob]

I think a stairwell like that under a skylight is a lovely idea and will be a real feature. A friend of mine lived in a French 1800s block of apartments and they had a massive stairwell like that going up from the communal hallway to each flat. It was very dramatic. I would however lose the glass. You don't need it and it accentuates the feel of insecurity, without actually bringing in any additional light to the house, other than the small area immediately next to the glass where unless you are less than 90cm tall you won't notice. I would build the balustrade out of opaque materials such as timber or timber and metal. We are doing ours out of oak with oil blackened steel spindles. You could still have airiness by having gaps between the spindles. If you are concerned that 90cm is insufficient, make it 98cm tall.  

[puntloos]

18 minutes ago, Adsibob said:

I think a stairwell like that under a skylight is a lovely idea and will be a real feature. A friend of mine lived in a French 1800s block of apartments and they had a massive stairwell like that going up from the communal hallway to each flat. It was very dramatic. I would however lose the glass. You don't need it and it accentuates the feel of insecurity, without actually bringing in any additional light to the house, other than the small area immediately next to the glass where unless you are less than 90cm tall you won't notice. I would build the balustrade out of opaque materials such as timber or timber and metal. We are doing ours out of oak with oil blackened steel spindles. You could still have airiness by having gaps between the spindles. If you are concerned that 90cm is insufficient, make it 98cm tall.  

Do you perhaps have a picture of something (like) what you're describing?

[Adsibob]

11 minutes ago, puntloos said:

Do you perhaps have a picture of something (like) what you're describing?

Here is a very contemporary version:  

 

 

Here is something similar where the spindles are lighter in colour, though I wouldn't have done the treads this shiny or this colour really:

[ToughButterCup]

Lovely flight of stairs. I would not be able to resist sliding down the bannister @rse first: those corners look just right for a cheap thrill.

Sad , I know.

[Pocster]

6 minutes ago, ToughButterCup said:

Lovely flight of stairs. I would not be able to resist sliding down the bannister @rse first: those corners look just right for a cheap thrill.

Sad , I know.

Wear pants . The burn otherwise is just too much 

[puntloos]

On 07/09/2021 at 14:13, Bitpipe said:

 

Very pretty - we have two lifts of a a similar cantilevered 'stringless' stair system.

 

Thing is when I look closer at this design it looks like it's frameless glass on the outside (towards the abyss) so I think it wouldn't fly with my wife, even if it's absolutely safe on paper. Indeed a proper balustrade, perhaps independently supported - posts at the corners - might be ideal

 

On 07/09/2021 at 14:13, Bitpipe said:

It was not cheap and the wall needed additional bracing to support it (as it was timber stud).

 

When do you think this house is actually getting built and how is your budget looking?

 

Ha, it's taken me pretty long hasn't it. Maybe I should update my status for the forum

 

Fun fact, right now I'm slightly considering actually selling the old house+plot since literally for the first time during the entire 5 years I've looked for a purchasable house that meets most of our needs there is one that has a dramatically different set of features yet the 'principles' are good. Might post separately just to regale you all with my tribulations

 

But in short, detail design is 99% done, so tendering should start in 1-2 weeks. Assuming 4 weeks tendering, 4 weeks mobilization, something like mid to late november seems about right.

[puntloos]

On 08/09/2021 at 17:57, pocster said:

Wear pants . The burn otherwise is just too much 

Plus it's harder to spot if you soiled yourself (vertigo and all)