I have done a fair bit of building and noticed that spiral saves very little floor cutout space.
Also straight stair case allows for storage below while spiral only lets air (and dust) circulation.
Where heating or cooling is a concern conventional allows a doorway to create zones.
A house I was designing for my wife and me had a straight stair in the garage to the basement, and a spiral stair in an awkward space off the Great Room that was of little use for anything else. I could have put a residential elevator there in place of the spiral if need be. Anyway, I was planning on framing out a vestibule in the basement with a door to provide a finished appearance, knock down the noise and dust, and minimize the draft issue.
A little real experience on the safety issues.
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Here's the point....
She got to the point first of needing to use a cane, then a walker, then a wheeled walker. This is a normal progression for many folks as they age, long before a wheelchair. As folks loose their dexterity and muscle they take smaller steps and shuffle. She could navigate on the large square tile floors and the smaller one in our kitchen like a wiz. The problem was the carpet.. just the opposite of what you think.
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I could write a book, but my main point here is the floor covering is important but none of it is a panacea.
As for carpeting, we have a tight small weave Berber with thin pad that is somewhat similar to commercial office carpeting. When it comes time to replace the stuff, we'll consider something similar again or commercial office carpeting. Having a plush pile and squishy pad underneath may feel luxurious when one is younger; but it can feel like a landlubber being on a boat for the first time waiting until they get their sea-legs as one get older.
Took my oldest girl with me. She wasn't quite sure what to make of the slab. lol
Your Mom is quite young looking for her age.
Yes, the weather today was really nice! High in the mid 50's. Tomorrow should be the same. Talked to mom and we came up with a great solution to the stair issue. The solution? No stairs to the basement for now. The living room as small as it is, and stairs would just eat up too much of the valuable floor space. Down the road, we may add stairs from the 2nd bedroom to downstairs.
So I called the builder, and he confirmed that code does not required stairs to the basement since it is walkout already. It is really not necessary in my mom's situation. I'd be the only one that would need to ever go there to flip a breaker or check on the air handler or water filter anyway.
Builder said they plan to have the floor completed by the end of tomorrow!
Trusses are still 2 weeks out... They got a lot of orders to fill right now.
I'd seriously reconsider not putting stairs into the basement. Adding them later is going to be a major PITA, a huge disruption in your Mom's routine assuming she is still with you when the stairs are added. Not having stairs is like having the 1-car garage you were originally planning on...it will make the eventual sale of the house very difficult.
Maybe you could investigate putting the stairs to the basement in the garage rather than making the 2nd bedroom so small.
This is an excellent idea, and is why I planned on the straight stairs to the basement to be accessed via the garage in the house I was designing. I believe TBN member KennyD has a stairwell to his basement located in the garage. I don't know if it's his only stairwell or not.
Now I'll finish this post with three quotes. The first is from my Mom, who I miss very much, "Getting old sucks!" The second quote is mine, "The older they get, the more like kids they become." The third quote is a paraphrase of a Dilbert book title, "Getting old...no place for wimps."
