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This is a collaborative post.
There are various different types of stairs to fit into your home, each with its own benefits and drawbacks. Choosing a staircase design depends on a lot of factors like your budget, the already mentioned space, building regulations, on the occupants – just to mention a few.
In this blog post I try to talk a bit about the most popular ones, to help you to choose.
Straight stairs
If you’re looking for the most practical (and probably the cheapest) solution, and you have the right space for this – you cannot go wrong with straight stairs. They go well with any interior but they are especially a good match with the nowadays very popular minimalist designs. They are also the safest for everyone. You can add a stairlift to straight stairs if you needed one (click here to see some of the best stairlift solutions) these are great to for elderly or less mobile people to keep their independence. The only thing which need to be noted, that of course they take up quite significant space so might not work in every home.
Winder stairs
They are used to change the direction of the stairs without landings, providing a flat rectangular turning space. Winder stair treads are not the safest: the lack of uniformity and because the tread width at the inside of the angle curve can be too small for safe walking. On the advantage side we can mention though that these stairs require a lot less space compared to many other types of staircases. They normally have to be made bespoke.
Spiral stairs
It has one central point through which all the footsteps are adjoining in an upward direction via floor giving it a centric view from the above portion. If you have the right space for spiral staircase to install, many houses and apartments can benefit from the use of spiral staircases. They work well for open floor plans and also in very small living space, which makes them a perfect choice for almost everyone. Their disadvantage is the fact, that they take up little space, therefore steeper than regular stairs so they might be difficult for some people to use.
L-shaped stairs
They are a variation of the straight stair with a bend in some portion of the stair. This bend is usually achieved by adding a landing at the bend transition point. A big advantage of them, that they are safe in case of falling down from stairs with the turning point as compare to the straight staircase. The disadvantage is that they are not the easiest to construct and they nearly always have to be tailor made.
Curved stairs
This type of staircase leads users upstairs in a graceful flowing arc. It doesn’t require a fixed central column and frequently features two rolled stringers with treads attached between them. Their advantage is that they can be twisted and turned and curved to fit any configuration of a room taking up less space. However, they cost more than the others.