Staircase question

Loft conversions can in some cases use "space saver" stairs - half way between a staircase and a ladder. Often with treads that are cut away alternately - so you have to start on the correct leg! Like:

Abbyy Fine reader 14

(not the latest version which seems to have gone subscription only)

(also not sure of it's availability at the moment since the parent company is Russian!)

Yup, I think the C ratings have been deferred to a BS doc now.

BS 5268 Structural Use of Timber is probably the one...

In message <tu24vf$vn7i$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me, at 13:20:47 on Sun, 5 Mar

I rented a period holiday cottage last summer, recently renovated, and the staircase wasn't just significantly steeper than 45 degrees, it had two right angle bends in it.

The sitting room had a large open fireplace with an alcove between that and the front wall. The staircase was an anti-clockwise almost spiral climb wedged into that. And felt very unsafe, especially going down.

I have something similar but for my garage loft, it has normal treads rather than half cut treads and the angle on this is something like 65 degrees.... bought really to minimise the amount of garage floor space lost.

I also then fitted chipboard floor to the garage loft and its a useful storage space now within the roof Fink trusses.

I also fitted a cross beam in the middle of the garage from the left window lintel into the right party wall of the house and then sistered the trusses with two sets of proper flooring joists, one set from back garage wall to the cross beam and then again from cross beam to front of garage so that the new floor and its contents could be supported properly.

In message snipped-for-privacy@perry.uk, Roland Perry snipped-for-privacy@perry.co.uk> writes

There are lots of holiday cottages in Southwold with over steep stairs. Often conversions where two fishermen's dwellings have been combined. Building regulations may not have penetrated East Anglia or Waveney DC thinks the income more important:-)

lawful I think if they've kept an original staircase

What about tread width? Several people say that they feel unsafe on my stairs since the whole of their foot will not go on it. Well its been like it is since 1939, and 1957 from my knowledge. I guess its what you get used to. We had no stairs in the flat we lived in before. Brian

To get that pitch here, you would need to widen the house by about 6 feet or more. Brian

more dangerous is where the going is greater than the tread in an open rise stair or the nosing is greater tha 15mm

Waveney DC is no longer, it merged with Suffolk Coastal a year or so ago and became East Suffolk. Guess what, we had East Suffolk about 70 years ago! :-)

or was it 16mm ?

Oh! I must tell my son in law who named their middle child after it! Much of Southwold is in a conservation area anyway.

What happens when an old(er) house is converted to flats ?. The original staircase is normally kept (but enclosed), and then doesn't meet the regs.

I walked from Boxhill and Westhumble station to Boxhill Village hall last Saturday.

Across the A24, over the stepping 'stones' and up the Box Hill steps, all 261 of them and no handrail. Would not want to come down, even in good light but several people passed me, going down, *jogging*.

The National Trust must have spent a fortune rebuilding all the steps because they used 2 inch thick rough sawn hardwood for the side rails and the step verticals, many with 9-10 inch vertical rise.

I bought a loft ladder from Screwfix last week. It arrived with one rung damaged - and was fitted with two left feet - so rather wobbly.

The replacement had the correct feet but with missing fixtures.

Both of them had the typical, safe-angle sticker on the inner face of the wrong stile. This (very common) sticker has a thick line on it indicating the correct angle that the ladder should be used at.

With the sticker as it is, you are instructed to climb, sloth-like, up the back / underside of the ladder.

I used to think that Screwfix were some good. Not now !

PA

The staircases at work are mental, they give me vertigo. They need to be steep though because the ceiling to floor is 12+ feet.The building is getting on for 200 years old, weren't people generally shorter then? Why did they waste bricks?

Ceiling height conveyed status in days gone by.

...and helped in the days of overcrowding and poor ventilation