Spiral staircase ???

[MFWD]

Hello,
Yes, I have one at my house. About 2 years ago, we put a ground level deck in front of our house with a spiral staircase leading up and through the upper deck leading to the front door. When the house was built, there were no steps or way to get from the ground to our front door which was on the second floor. Our main living area is on the top floor. It really serves us well....now people can pull up in front of our house and climb the spiral staircase and come in our real front door and into our foyer. Before, everyone had to come in the back of our house. We have a 10' wide deck that goes the whole way around our 2nd floor. There would have been no way to put a regular type staircase up the front of the house without it being in the way of something....the driveway or in front of the garage. we didn't build this house so we had to come up with a solution that worked......and the spiral staircase works great. True, it's not the easiest job trying to carry anything up it, but if you need to do that, the back door works. We bought it online in kit form and assembled it on site. The 2 hardest things to do.....get the concrete pier at the correct height for the bottom of the center pole to sit on and installing the handrail. The handrail (aluminum tubing) came in a 3' diameter roll and it had to be carefully pulled and shaped into a helix that would fit the stair correctly. I never thought it would work, but it did, thanks to my contractor buddy that has great patience.

MFWD

 

[Fuddy1952]

I've never seen this in a house but since my F.I.L. was a fireman a fire pole is an easy way down! Up...a different matter.
Some way to have a counterweight balanced platform would be interesting.

 

[Fuddy1952]

HERE'S a spiral staircase in Santa Fe, NM we visited. The story they told was a carpenter showed up one day (1800s), made the floating stairs and left without asking for pay.
Loretto Chapel - Wikipedia

 

[Steppenwolfe]

HERE'S a spiral staircase in Santa Fe, NM we visited. The story they told was a carpenter showed up one day (1800s), made the floating stairs and left without asking for pay.
Loretto Chapel - WikipediaView attachment 640174

I've heard that story before. Amazing craftmanship with no auto cad or modern tools available.

 

[aczlan]

And you got me thinking.... I've dealt with two spiral staircases. One, at my last employer, was 30' high, really neat, ornate, wrought iron going from the top of a conventional staircase up to an elevator penthouse. I'm 6' tall with wide shoulders. I had to navigate it sideways. The 2nd one I deal with at my current employer. It goes between 3 floors in and old building. Again, I have to navigate it sideways. It is very hard to carry anything up that staircase. Even my tool bag carried over my shoulder is quite uncomfortable because it either hits the center column or the handrail.

For example, if you have a 5' opening, and the center support is 4" in diameter. You'd divide the space by 2, so half of 60" is 30". Then you'd subtract half of the center support and you're left with 28" wide treads. Now add in handrail on the outer side of the stairs, say 3", and you're looking at 25" of clearance. I have some 28" doorways in my house. In a t-shirt I have just 1.5" of clearance on either side. 25" wide area to navigate while walking up or down a curved stairs isn't easy, pleasant, or quaint after a while. In fact, it gets old, fast if you have to use it often.

We have several of them at work, they are useful in that they do not take up much space, but they are annoying if you have to go up and down them more than a few times.

View attachment 640152

This is the attic I am thinking of using the spiral staircase. It is about 900 sq ft with a 11 ft ceiling. It would make a great bonus room or bedroom. I would have to add a dormer with a window large enough to get furniture in. Note: This is all wifey's idea right now... :confused3:

I would not use them as the primary exit for a bedroom, too hard to get out of in an emergency.

Aaron Z

 

[zzvyb6]

I put 2 together to make an 18' staircase for one of my windmills. Now visitors can easily climb 2/3 of the way up to the top and get a good look at the mill [and get a great view of the entire area.

I made a coupling to join the 2 main stems and just stacked the stairs in place. Mine are steel and not welded to the stem. It's more sturdy than I ever expected, too. This shot shows the mill before I put a roof on the larger tower.

 

[goeduck]

I do not understand the appeal to be quite honest. Now a nice exposed traditional banister staircase, that looks nice. :thumbsup:

 

[rScotty]

I built a spiral staircase to a guest room overlooking the living area. Being a guest room it doesn't get a lot of traffic, but it looks nice and doesn't take up much space. I'd do the same again. The craftsmanship makes a nice accent piece.
rScotty

 

[oosik]

Just a thought. The log cabin we built in AK had a sleeping loft. Access was via a ladder. I was not clever enough to handle construction of a spiral staircase.

This put us over the wood stove in the living room & propane kitchen stove - on the main floor. I knew enough to build alternate exits from this sleeping loft. On each end of the loft was a large horizontal swing open window. In an emergency we could have exited via either of these windows.

This cabin location was remote. So..... never any protection from police or fire departments. Also - no building codes. No road maintenance. No insurance company would touch a policy at this remote location. No water, sewer, electricity or phone services.

It was a fantastic retreat where you would never be bothered by the mundane concerns of everyday life. You were definitely on your own.

The point being - these two large swing out windows did provide exits from the sleeping loft.

 

[Steppenwolfe]

I do not understand the appeal to be quite honest. Now a nice exposed traditional banister staircase, that looks nice. :thumbsup:

That is probably where we are heading. I talked wifey into sacrificing the square footage on the second floor to do that if I add a 3/4 bath in the attic. Now if I can sell that, why can't congress get along ???