Unequal Staircase Risers

TimmyG1964

I've seen a house I like but the bottom step to a mezzanine floor has a larger step than the rest of the staircase. All the other steps are 8 inches but the bottom one is 11 inches.


There isn't enough room to raise the floor at the bottom of the stairs but there is good access underneath to work from.


Apart from replacing the whole staircase are the ideas of how this can be fixed?

Gloomendoom

Raise the floor?

I have the same thing in my house and every now and then it still catches me out.

DaftyDuck

Out of historical interest, you'll commonly find this in cellar steps in old pubs converted to houses. Reputedly, it was to catch the drunks out, as they tried to slope off down the cellar steps, to get free drinks. Traditionally, it was the third step down.

Well, now you know.

You may not be able to raise the floor, but can you increase height locally around the bottom step, maybe using thick floor tiles.

Doozergirl

Muscle memory will allow you to conquer the stairs rather quickly. We had very odd stairs when our son was only three and we worried about him falling but he never did. Not there anyway, lol!

It isn't that expensive to replace a staircase these days, but character is what makes a house. Just recount dafty's story about pubs, adapting it to the relvamt numbered stair

Mistral001

Lower the whole staircase until the bottom riser is exactly a dimension exactly equal to floor-to-floor height divided by the number of risers. That will leave make the top riser 11 inches. Then raise the other treads by increasing amounts as you go up using various combinations of different thicknesses of plywood or thin hardboard so that all the risers are equal.

TimmyG1964

Its a cute, quirky design, built 2005. I met the guy that built them (2 semis for private owner). He told me the building inspector made them change the mezzanine floor design at the last minute. It looks like they already had the stairs made so put them in anyway and the building inspector signed them off!


A door goes too close to the stairs to increase the height locally and there isn't room for a 90 degree turn. The only idea I've had is to re-router the recesses on the stringers and drop each step to spread the extra 3 inches. A lot of work.