How much space needed for a staircase

[tinnews]

We're looking into providing our son with a separate part of our house to use as his home (he currently rents a flat locally). It all looks fairly easily do-able but one issue is the need for a new staircase.

I'm pretty sure there's enough space but looking at staircases from Screwfix and such it's very difficult to workout how much space the actually need.

We're aiming to put it in one end of our (very large) hall, the space we'd *like* to fit it into is about 2.2 metres by 2.5 metres and has one outside door opening into it. Is it practical to get a conventional staircase into this space (with a turn if necessary) or do we need to be thinking about some sort of compact/spiral one?

[geraldthehamster]

I fitted a straight staircase with three winders at the bottom into a

3.3 metre length of floor (the "going"), and had a fairly gentle angle of 38 degrees. The steepest angle allowed by Building Regs is 42 degrees. You should be OK.

Cheers Richard

[Gazz]

hole in the celing, square of plywood, some rope and a few pulleys...

a human powered lift, it'll keep him fit using it, and take up less room than a stair case :)

[Bob Minchin]

I'm not sure about this but I think I've read somewhere that if you split a dwelling into separate dwellings, each will treated individually for council tax and often the total tax will be greater than that levied on the original property. In your case there might be something you could do ie by having a connecting door 'always unlocked' to avoid this.

Can't help with the stairs but thought it worth mentioning the possible CT poo trap.

The building regs are very specific about stairs in many ways so having a look there might help.

Bob

[MuddyMike]

If it is a complete habitation which includes kitchen and bathroom it is indeed treated as separate for CT. Having a connecting door makes no difference. We were caught out by that when we created an annex to our house from existing rooms, and existing outside doors. The buggers also refused to reduce the banding of the main house due to improvements increasing its value since last assessment.

Mike

[John Rumm]

A conventional stair ought to fit. Building regs document K1 is the one you need. Relevant bits extracted below:

"STAIRS AND LADDERS Steepness of stairs Rise and going

1.1 The requirement will be satisfied if, in a flight, the steps all have the same rise and the same going to the dimensions shown in 1.3 or comply with 1.4 and 1.5. 1.2 Three categories of stairs are considered in this Approved Document: "Private" intended to be used for only one dwelling. "Institutional and assembly" serving a place where a substantial number of people wilt gather. "Other" in all other buildings. 1.3 Indication of the practical limits for rise and going, for each category of stair which satisfies the requirements, is given below.

a. Private stair: Any rise between 155mm and 220mm used with any going between 245mm and 260mm, or Any rise between 165mm and 200mm used with any going between 223mm and

300mm.

The maximum pitch for a private stair is 42deg

1-5 The normal relationship between the dimensions of the rise and going is that twice the rise plus the going (2R + G) should be between 550mm and 700mm. Diagram 1 shows how to measure the rise and going (for steps with tapered treads, see also paragraphs 1.18 - 1.20).

[The Natural Philosopher]

Yes. check out tax issues in making a 'maisonette' out of a house.

OTOH if he is simply sharing your house and you add a staircase, that;s that. Likewise if he isn't paying rent exactly you can't be taxed on it.

There are exact limits on staircase and the smallest footprint is pretty much what I did - a three section stair with two landings at about 800mm and 1.6m above floor level and three short flights Its about 2 meters square out of the lower and upper floor.

Its a steep rise but because it winds a bit the building regs can be bent a little.

As straight staircase takes a LOT of room.

Squeezing staircases in means hand making as well. Suggest glued and screwed MDF.

Finally watch out for fire issues..ma ned more smoke alarms. Definitely this one is worth getting building control in on, and, if you cant do the math, an architect.

[andrew]

That's more than enough space. I'm about to take out a staircase we fitted a few years ago to an attic that fits in a space about 1400mm x

2100mm, and goes up 3.1m floor to floor. There are lots of sites that will help you design a suitable staircase, and quote to supply it. tkstairs.com is quite good, as is stairplan.com A

[Jules Richardson]

Or a Paternoster? Wheeeeee! (squish)

[John Rumm]

Or make your own - quite good fun, and half to a third the price.

[Mark]

Yes. I don't know a lot about them but I couldn't replace my staircase since I didn't have enough headroom clearance.