Three Stairs Options

[Gaf]

Done plenty of reading here on posts about stairs. General consensus seems to be:

• have a landing as close to half way as possible
• keep the going and rise sizes the same throughout the entire stairs to prevent trips
• have as deep a going as reasonably possible
• have as low a rise as reasonably possible
• the lower the angle the better

 

Based on the above, I'm considering getting the stairs the architect put in modified, primarily because of the proposed angle. The house's floor to floor height is 3m and the floor to ceiling height is 2.55m. Stairs width is 1m. We have approx. 4.1m in a straight line to work with, but have 0.5m to add a quarter-landing near the bottom.

 

Option #1: Architect's Stairs

• Rise 200mm
• Going 250mm
• 15 steps in total
• Quarter-landing at step #3
• Angle of 38.7°

 

Option #2: Extra Step, Lower Angle

• Rise 187.5mm
• Going 250mm
• 16 steps in total
• Quarter-landing at step #3
• Angle of 36.9°

 

Option #2: Straight Stairs, Lowest Angle

• Rise 176.5mm
• Going 250mm
• 17 steps in total
• Angle of 35.2°

 

It's between #2 and #3, either a landing near the bottom or a less acute angle. Curious about what might be seen as the better option?

 

Just added an image of #2 to give a sense of where the quarter landing would be (not ideal in terms of being a rest stop).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 11 by Gaf

[joe90]

5 minutes ago, Gaf said:

keep the going and rise sizes the same throughout the entire stairs to prevent trips

This is a building regulation so compulsory.

 

6 minutes ago, Gaf said:

have a landing as close to half way as possible

This depends on the house design and where the stairs fit into the space (but it’s what I did).

 

I like #2 as it makes a better “statement”, 🤷‍♂️

[Bonner]

Might be worth posting your floor layout to put this in perspective? Have you thought about a winder staircase? Quarter (and half) landings will take more space so you will get a shallower angle with either straight or winder stairs.

[Alan Ambrose]

I like #3 best and wide - keep it simple and elegant. But it may depend on the aesthetics and functionality of where the stair lands at the bottom. Your floor at the top is 450mm thick?

[ProDave]

Stairs work best when they are built to expected rise and going.  A lot of old houses have very steep very short going stairs.  You get used to whatever you have in your own home, but that is not the point.

 

If you want easy stairs, you are probably better at looking at the requirements for a commercial or public building that have much shallower stairs.  I don't think building a shallower stair conflicts with domestic building regs.

 

Each case is individual, for instance the layout for our house and doorway constraints meant we had to have an odd number of stairs, which pushed us to close to the maximum rise.  I countered that by having a longer than required going to make the pitch lower, basically the longest going that would fit the space.

[Originaltwist]

I've done a stairs design here - https://wordpress.com/post/originaltwist.com/1927 - with some notes on typical geometry.

 

Here's an extract

Tradition has it that a comfort stair is 7” x 11” for rise and going. Rounding up slightly that’s 180 x 280mm. B.S. regulations give ranges for rise of150 -220mm and 220-300mm for going G. The ratio of rise to going gives an important angle which here would be around 33 degrees and must not exceed 42 degrees

[saveasteading]

22 hours ago, ProDave said:

  I don't think building a shallower stair conflicts with domestic building regs.

No  and you can have extra landings. It  just takes a lot of space out of 2 storeys. For old an doddery purposes, easy to grip handrails on both sides are important too.

[Gaf]

Sorry been flat out. Attached are the plans as they are.