Door at top or bottom of stairs

[Arron]

Hi. I am finishing off a two storey house build.

One thing I have been thinking about is unwanted transfer of heat/cold and noise up/down the stairwell. There are just two of us, and we will live predominantly upstairs, so I’m thinking it will be wasteful to not be able to constrain our artificial heating or cooling to upstairs.

I’m thinking maybe I should remodel the wall to add a door at top or bottom.

Both doors would open outwards into free space.

I have asked building-trade people if this is permitted and have received different and contradictory answers. Is there anyone here who has access to the relevant legislation and is able to answer this?

I know there are more complications - like how it will feel to the user - but I’ll deal with those once I’ve found just what is permitted.

Cheers
Arron

[LanceC]

Good morning Aaron,

I'm sure others will chime in too, but our experience when designing our house for Tasmanian requirements, was that at the bottom of the stairs, there needed to be a minimum length of level floor between the bottom step and door.

A simple phone call to your local council's planning department will give you all the answers you need. And you'll know they are correct for your local requirements.

[Wrongwayfirst]

Coming up 10 years in a two story, no door at either end of the stairs. (Living up, guest bedroom laundry is down)

Gas ducted heating works fine (did have to adjust accordingly for flow as heat rises, we did this ourselves after going around with the tech to see them do it). As for wasteful we have it zoned and the first week we used it we left downstairs off but going down to the laundry and to let the dog outside for ablutions it was cold, so we heat both. I think it works better as the hot air from below helps keep the top and bottom within a closer tolerance. our gas bill is not high

Cooling is split system upstairs only as down remains cool.
noise doesn’t seem to be an issue as when my wife calls out from downstairs I can’t hear her over the tv:U
vice versa if I call out from upstairs to her downstairs you need to raise your voice.

no idea on rules our builder looked at our layout and said “open plan, I’m guessing you won’t want a door on the stairs”. It would look out of place upstairs and it would be in the way downstairs.

as a side note our neighbors across the road (uphill) are the opposite living down and guest/kids bedroom upstairs (also no doors) their comments are the kids bedroom gets quite warm, so I told them to turn the upstairs ducts right down, seemed to help.

cheers
p.s. Having doors on stairs “could” make it very difficult for furniture moving up and or down.

[Chris Parks]

Our heating is downstairs using a fire and it heats the upstairs through the floor and via the staircase very well. The fire heats the floor very well and the heat is very evenly distributed. We do have a door into the bottom floor off the foyer that the stairs go into and when the house was signed off in the final inspection I had to sign a stat dec to say we would not use the bottom part as a rental. That was most probably because the upper floor was added as a renovation and both floors have a kitchen and laundry. It was done to accommodate my mother in her later years.

[arose62]

Hi Aaron,

no idea about legalities and technicalities, but in our 2 story, mostly upstairs house, the stairwell is open at the top so a top door would be useless/silly.

In winter, heat rises, so no problem.
In summer, the cold air from the aircon would flow down the stairs, so we just put a piece of MDF across the top of the stairs (like a baby safety gate), and the cold air "pools" on the upstairs floor.

It's a bit primitive, but zero cost, zero effort, and works well.

[Arron]

Good morning Aaron,

I'm sure others will chime in too, but our experience when designing our house for Tasmanian requirements, was that at the bottom of the stairs, there needed to be a minimum length of level floor between the bottom step and door.

A simple phone call to your local council's planning department will give you all the answers you need. And you'll know they are correct for your local requirements.

Yes, I was wondering who would be the right people to call, I hadn’t thought of council (we do everything through a private certifier so don’t have much dealings with council). I’ll give them a call.

[Sir Stinkalot]

The answer to your question is contained within the National Construction Code - Volume 2 section 3.9.1.5 Landings. This is free to download and view if you want.

Short answer is …..

750mm long landing at the top of the stairs between the doorway and risers (if more than 3 risers).

There doesn’t seem to be a requirement for the bottom of the stairs.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20210429/3b312272d6e0598af028e97adea32152.jpg

[Fuzzie]

A search came up with the following. I would assume a door at the bottom of the staircase is no issue since it would have to open outward to a flat floor. (One of our previous houses had a door on the bottom step of an internal stairwell.)

NCC Part 3.9.1.3 – Staircase Construction

[.....]



If a door in your home opens onto a staircase a landing is required unless the floor to floor dimension is less than 570mm. If the floor to floor is less than 570mm all that is required is a zero tread.


https://www.ozstair.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Threshold.png

[Fuzzie]

.... snap :D

[Bushmiller]

I think Sir Stinky has nailed the regulations, but irrespective of regulations it makes sense not to step straight onto a staircase going down immediately as you open the door. Our daughter lived in a house in Brisbane where the front door opened straight onto a high staircase that was higher than head height. Very dangerous and dated from a time when the were no regulations governing such things. It would never be allowed in recent times. Although that was an external door the same principle would apply to an internal staircase and doorway.

Two storey houses can present a problem with heating and cooling and for that reason it is difficult to, for example, build them completely to a solar passive design. However, the most should be made of hot air rising during the winter and cold air falling in the summer and regulating that with a door will help. Assistance from your air con will most likely be necessary.

Regards
Paul

[Beardy]

The best person to ask is your PCA, they are the ones who will be signing it off so the ones you need to satisfy ( unless you are planning to do it after your final inspection?)

Another consideration is if you have ducted AC and the door effects the flow of air to the return air grill.
Also if by installing the door your smoke detector locations still comply? You may need to add an additional detector to maintain compliance

[Arron]

Thanks for the replies, guys.

Fuzzie and Stinkalot - does this apply to case of both inward and outward opening doors (in relation to the staircase).

Cheers
Arron

[Sir Stinkalot]

If it’s at the top of the staircase it doesn’t matter if the door swings in or out, you need a landing with a minimum length of 750mm from the top riser to the door. The intention is to give you time to realise that you are about to encounter a staircase shortly after opening the door.

That being said, if you had a 750mm landing, and an 820 leaf door, when you go up the stairs and arrive on your landing, it would be an awkward squeeze as you tried to open the door whilst not having to step back on the stairs again. A better solution would be to extend the landing to 1000mm or open the door away from the stair.

[Arron]

Ok, that makes sense. I can reconfigure the top flight to give us a short landing of maybe 500mm but not 750mm, so can’t do a top door.

I think the bottom door is out too. Just too awkward when coming down the stairs to encounter a door so much lower then normal and I can’t reconfigure the bottom flight at all. Pity.

Thanks
Arron

Ps. For those who have remembered any of my many posts on our house build - we move in tomorrow - yah!
Bottom floor only (two stage build) and plenty of work still to be done, but perfectly comfortable for the two of us.

[Sir Stinkalot]

I can reconfigure the top flight to give us a short landing of maybe 500mm but not 750mm, so can’t do a top door.


A short landing isn’t a landing if it’s not 750mm :)

[Fuzzie]

Also if the door is at the bottom of the stairs it probably needs to be higher than normal for safe clearance stepping off the bottom step. The house in which we had with such a door, it was extra tall!

[yvan]

Hello Aaron,

I lived temporarily in a two-story house over a Tasmanian winter. We ended up hanging a heavy curtain at the top and the bottom of the stairs to prevent the loss of heat on the ground floor. It was pretty much jerry-rigged but worked very well.

Cheers,
Yvan

[Mobyturns]

The answer to your question is contained within the National Construction Code - Volume 2 section 3.9.1.5 Landings. This is free to download and view if you want.

Short answer is …..

750mm long landing at the top of the stairs between the doorway and risers (if more than 3 risers).

There doesn’t seem to be a requirement for the bottom of the stairs.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20210429/3b312272d6e0598af028e97adea32152.jpg

I'm a bit rusty but there are also definitions in the BCA and Aust Standard/s AS1657 - note that there are some differences between external / internal between "habitable rooms"/ and internal to "storage areas / non-habitable rooms" staircases / landings and door at top / bottom of stairs.

This link has a pretty good precis - NCC REGULATIONS - Oz Stair Pty Ltd (https://www.ozstair.com.au/ncc-regulations/)

[Sir Stinkalot]

I'm a bit rusty but there are also definitions in the BCA and Aust Standard/s AS1657 - note that there are some differences between external / internal between "habitable rooms"/ and internal to "storage areas / non-habitable rooms" staircases / landings and door at top / bottom of stairs.

True. The NCC is the renamed BCA. I tried to keep the answer as simple as possible to the question raised. Based off the original description it appeared to be an internal staircase connecting two habitable spaces. There are different requirements for access to non-habitable spaces.

The link provided a good rundown - but the problem is always the reliability of a third party website if regulations change. The update NCC is the best reference - even if it is somewhat vague and open to interpretation at times.

[Mobyturns]

The update NCC is the best reference - even if it is somewhat vague and open to interpretation at times.

Like all regulations. :D

I agree with your comments and advice.

Someone will always seek out a loop hole for their advantage, and those who draft such regulations can never accommodate all possibilities. I've seen some strange interpretations of the habitable / non-habitable rulings and also some overly absurd (and expensive) imposts for infrequently used facilities, and of course some shocking and appalling "solutions."

However slip, trip, fall injuries are rising in frequency and are more common in those aged over 65, and women. Even though stair injuries account for approx 6% of fall type injuries the severity of the injuries (hip & lower limb) also increases with age / gender. 70% of hospital admissions for fall type injuries in buildings are persons over 65. The home accounts for the majority of slip, trip, fall injuries approx 60%. There were 1815 fatalities (2001-2005) with 71% being persons over 65. Estimates of the annual cost of slip, trip, fall injuries in Australia exceeds $1.3 billion. (Australian Building Codes Board funded research by Monash University ARC.)

So stair (& balustrade) design in the home and residential care facilities has attracted a fair bit of attention. There is a strong focus on ensuring all facilities "meet code" due to our aging population; bringing "up to code" older installations that have never complied with the minimum BCA/NCC requirements; and to accommodate the change in the physical stature of our population (taller etc).

Money spent of getting stair & balustrade installations "right" is money well spent especially if you have family or visitors who meet the "ageing demographic."