Stairs issue with 'shortlist' house

dannim12345

Hard to tell from the plan but you could replace the stairs with ones that have a half turn at the bottom to the stairs start to the left or the right for a few steps then turn. This should mean they can be less step and shallow.  This could be simple if the wall(s) are stud or much more work if it’s a supporting wall.  If you keep it roughly in the same position it will reduce the cost. 

Section62

dannim12345 said:

Hard to tell from the plan but you could replace the stairs with ones that have a half turn at the bottom to the stairs start to the left or the right for a few steps then turn. This should mean they can be less step and shallow.  This could be simple if the wall(s) are stud or much more work if it’s a supporting wall.  If you keep it roughly in the same position it will reduce the cost. 

This is essentially what p00hsticks was suggesting - the problem is likely to be with headroom, unless the ground floor rooms have unusually high ceilings (which seems unlikely given the existing stairs).  Probably at most you could have one step before the first winder, but as the winders themselves take up some of the horizontal travel the outcome might be needing steeper stairs than the existing.

On older properties it is common for one - or both - walls of the stairwell to be structural.  They often support the floors of the first floor rooms adjacent to the stairwell.

dannim12345

Yes, we did similar in a Victorian terrace, the wall was already supported though but both side of the stair were a supporting walls.  And luckily there was the head height.  We could see other houses on the street had done it from from old listings.  

We did it so you didn’t have to walk though a bedroom to get to the bathroom so we turned the stairs around (but they were steep before). 

JuzaMum

GDB2222 said:

I don’t think the plan can be correct. It shows the existing staircase as being around 1.6m in the horizontal direction. Since it must climb at least 2 metres, that’s more like a ladder than a staircase. 

Do you have a picture from the listing of what the staircase looks like?

As people have said, if you want a shallower staircase you’re going to lose a lot of space upstairs as well as downstairs. 

Unfortunately no pictures of the stairs (estate agents tend not to photograph the worst bits). They are very steep, and finish halfway past the front bedroom doorways. I'd estimate the stair are about 1.8-2m long - 80cm ish of floor in front of the front door then the steps

JuzaMum

Just to add, ceilings are low. 

JuzaMum

dannim12345 said:

Hard to tell from the plan but you could replace the stairs with ones that have a half turn at the bottom to the stairs start to the left or the right for a few steps then turn. This should mean they can be less step and shallow.  This could be simple if the wall(s) are stud or much more work if it’s a supporting wall.  If you keep it roughly in the same position it will reduce the cost. 

The plan is pretty bad tbh, it's certainly not proportionate. The front door opens at the bottom of the stairs, if we make them longer, we would have to move the front door and porch.

Section62

JuzaMum said:

dannim12345 said:

Hard to tell from the plan but you could replace the stairs with ones that have a half turn at the bottom to the stairs start to the left or the right for a few steps then turn. This should mean they can be less step and shallow.  This could be simple if the wall(s) are stud or much more work if it’s a supporting wall.  If you keep it roughly in the same position it will reduce the cost. 

The plan is pretty bad tbh, it's certainly not proportionate. The front door opens at the bottom of the stairs, if we make them longer, we would have to move the front door and porch.

If you've decided to use the front right reception room as a hallway then moving the front door to where the window currently is might be an option which would then allow an 'L'-shaped staircase....  but you would almost certainly still need to make modifications to both the front bedrooms as well.