Open or closed banister for narrow staircase?

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neb

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#273404 20-Aug-2020 15:54

The Casa de Cowboy stairs are quite narrow, I think "chicken ladder" would be a good description, constrained by lack of available space. They do a 180 turn halfway with a landing, so U-shaped, and are very narrow, about 700mm with walls on both sides (lower half) and a banister on one side (upper half where it drops down to the lower half). I'm looking for advice on how to do the banister part. Since the stairs are so narrow, I wanted a solid banister to enclose the small space where you're walking down. Since the stairs are so narrow, Mrs.Neb wanted an open banister to give it a feeling of space. Does anyone have any arguments in favour of either? I'm happy to be persuaded to go with an open banister if that's a better idea, at the moment there's no strong case either way.

MikeAqua

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#2545362 20-Aug-2020 16:00

I'm with Mrs Neb on this. An open banister will improve sense of space in the stairs, and make them less of an intrusion into the room on the other side of he bannister.

Mike

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wellygary

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#2545363 20-Aug-2020 16:01

What would the bannister overlook?, the lower portion of the stairs?..

You have mentioned there is a wall? does it only run to the height of the bottom of the returning staircase?

neb

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#2545366 20-Aug-2020 16:08

MikeAqua:
I'm with Mrs Neb on this. An open banister will improve sense of space in the stairs, and make them less of an intrusion into the room on the other side of he bannister.

That isn't quite the layout, the stairs are completely enclosed in a rectangular shaft that goes through both floors of the house, with the entry/exit at the short end of the rectangle and the stairs running in a U-shape down the shaft. So the layout is roughly like this:

with the banister to the left of the upper half of the stairs.

neb

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#2545367 20-Aug-2020 16:09

wellygary:
What would the bannister overlook?, the lower portion of the stairs?..

You have mentioned there is a wall? does it only run to the height of the bottom of the returning staircase?

Yup. See my other post for the rest, it's an enclosed shaft containing the stairs. Light is from a solartube directly above.

Bung

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#2545456 20-Aug-2020 17:12

If those are the actual stairs you might want to look at D1 Access routes. If open riser stairs are ever to be used by young children there's similar minimum gap requirements as balustrades.

neb

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#2545481 20-Aug-2020 17:30

Bung: If those are the actual stairs you might want to look at D1 Access routes. If open riser stairs are ever to be used by young children there's similar minimum gap requirements as balustrades.

No, nothing like just, just posted it to show the layout since.

Senecio

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#2545494 20-Aug-2020 17:55

Tempered glass banister?

MikeAqua

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#2547020 21-Aug-2020 14:04

neb:
MikeAqua:

I'm with Mrs Neb on this. An open banister will improve sense of space in the stairs, and make them less of an intrusion into the room on the other side of he bannister.

That isn't quite the layout, the stairs are completely enclosed in a rectangular shaft that goes through both floors of the house, with the entry/exit at the short end of the rectangle and the stairs running in a U-shape down the shaft. So the layout is roughly like this: with the banister to the left of the upper half of the stairs.

I'd still go with the bannister as it will seem less enclosed so Mrs Neb's Wisdom still stands!

The trick will be getting a design that doesn't seem too busy in a small space.

Mike

neb

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#2547370 21-Aug-2020 22:49

MikeAqua:
The trick will be getting a design that doesn't seem too busy in a small space.

For me it's more a practical thing, anything fancy will end up being a huge dustcatcher, so just simple vertical balusters with a rail on top would be nice.