How to Choose Stair Shapes for Your New Home
The most important aspect of choose a stair shape is space. The space available for stairs is going to determine the types of stairs that can fit for the house.
When considering comfort, stairs that are wide and have a less steep climb are more inviting. This is important information and needs to be taken into consideration along with who will be climbing the stairs.
The next consideration is safety. The safest stairs are ones with a landing. These are the return stairs followed by L-shaped or U-shaped stairs. These types of stairs are often found in hospitals, colleges, other schools, and hotels. Straight stairs with a landing are better than straight stairs without a landing, but a landing may not fit or may not be required if the stairs are not going up a significant distance. A circular staircase is the hardest to climb, even though they take up the least space.
After these things are considered, other things can start to be considered. However, this article is not about the color or design of the stairs, but choosing the stair shape that is best for your home.
Of course, the stair shape also depends on the design of your home. What shape will look best? Spiral stairs can be quite pretty. This is great for big houses that are Victorian or look almost Victorian. However, if anything of significant size is wanted upstairs, it is important to remember to have another type of stair case installed in another part of the house to make it easier to move those things upstairs.
Obviously, spiral staircases are small and large objects do not go up them well at all. Then, they can also be very difficult to climb. Sometimes they may simply be wanted more as a decoration that can be climbed for those that want to try climbing them.
While straight stairs are the easiest to build, they can be difficult to fit into a floor plan unless there is a space for a stairway built into the plan.
It is important to remember that circular stairs are not the semi-circle stairs sometimes found outside and go up straight. Those are still considered straight stairs. The individual steps are in just a different shape.
Obviously, it is best if a plan for wide stairs with low steps can be planned both for safety and comfort. However, this is not always an available option and it does not always fit the design style of the house.
The style is going to depend on the owner of the house, and that really is the final say for any stairs that are built in or even outside of a house.
“Stair Shapes,” HomeTips.com
