| Wow I could not believe how many
times my family members fell down the stairs. I even fell down once. I
was amazed. When I switched from the winder to the T shaped stairway
there were less accidents. My point is that even using the stair
building codes this is a dangerous part of your house.
Having a professional
stair builder install your stairs is great advice. Take it. For
example this happened to me on quite a few jobs. I get a set of plans
from a architect who has been designing houses for over 40 years. I
looked at the stairway to find out that he has designed a stairway that
is to small for the length of this part of the home. If I build the
stairs using the plans that by the way were approved from the local
building department, I could have a problem.
You are probably asking yourself how does this happen. Aren't these
people experienced professionals. Of course they are. They probably have
the U.B.C.(Uniform Building Code ) in their office somewhere. Everyone
makes mistakes here and there but this is one area of the home where
safety is a big concern.
Just look at it like this. The stair building code was designed to
improve the safety and reduce the number of accidents while using the
stairs. Over the years I have seen stairs poorly designed and
constructed. These stairs create problems for the owners of the
buildings not just the people that use them. Did I mention lawsuits.
This is one area where a lawyer will have a field day.
As a building professional I advise you to use the stair building
code first for safety and second to avoid lawsuits. Get a Idea from some
of the pictures I have taken over the years on
problems with stair building.
Use common sense while building or remodeling your home. It goes a
long way.
|
