Making changes to stairs and building regulations..

[pavsid]

Hi all,

We're looking to make some alterations to the stairs in our house and want to know what building regs, if any, we will need to adhere to, and whether the whole staircase will need to be replaced/widened.

The current stairs are in the middle of the house and are surrounded by walls either side (no balustrade/banister/railings). They measure 86cm wide and lead straight down to the garage.

There are some basement rooms either side, and we want to make the staircase "bend" into one of the rooms (just the last few steps), rather than lead straight into the garage. That will obviously mean knocking down one of the walls and installing an RSJ (presume separate building regs/structural engineer will be required for that).

Would we need to replace the whole staircase and make it wider to conform to building regs, or could we just install the "bend" at the bottom maintaining the current width?

Thanks in advance.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

You do not need to conform to the latest regs, just make it no worse than existing. BTW you can do a 600mm stair in a house. Obviously anything structural and anything that affects the layout in terms of protected escape routes etc needs to be taken into consideration.

 

[tony1851]

There are some basement rooms either side, and we want to make the staircase "bend" into one of the rooms (just the last few steps), rather than lead straight into the garage. That will obviously mean knocking down one of the walls and installing an RSJ (presume separate building regs/structural engineer will be required for that).

Is your garage in the basement??

 

[pavsid]

Is your garage in the basement??

Yes It's more a partial basement - partially underground, you walk in the house on the top level, but the garden and garage are on the bottom level.

It's certainly an odd one

 

[PaulJR]

"good paractice" on stairs is to make any landing at least as long as the stair width, so extend the stair tread at the point you wish and then build your new stiars off the side. It is better to keep all the risers and goings on a stair the same even after a change of direction, as uneven stairs trip people.