Whats the tread and riser ratio ?? for outside door steps ??

[stevesmith]

and should all steps have a handrail ??

[Tony Williams]

My old (probably out of date) brickwork book says:-

For private stairways.

1. The sum of the going of a parallel step plus twice the riser shall be between 559mm and 635mm
2. The rise of a step to be not more than 203mm and the going not less than 216mm.
3. The pitch to be not more than 42 degrees.

For common (public) steps.

1. The rise of a step to be not more than 190.5mm and the going not less than 228.6mm.
2. The pitch to be not more than 38 degrees.
3. Not more than 16 risers in any one flight.

As regards guarding either type of stairway it says:-

1. The stairway shall be guarded on each side by a wall or securely fixed screen, balustrade or railing extending to a height not less than 838mm, measured vertically above the pitch lines.
2. Any flight of steps with an aggregate rise of more than 610mm shall have a continuous handrail fixed securely at a height of not less than 838mm and not more than 990mm measured vertically above the pitch line.

On my last set of steps I discovered a little trick that might be useful. It goes like this.....

It is very desirable for the steps to be rigidly consistent, ie, goings and risers exactly the same. However, the top step can have a slightly longer going without any trouble, but a shorter top step is bad news.

So measure the mean pitch required (from top to bottom), but calculate the steps required using a *slightly higher* pitch angle, and concentrate the difference into making the top step about 1.25x to 1.5x the rest of them.

This means that any errors in laying-out and building, (which naturally accumulate at the top step), never makes it shorter than the rest.