Spiral Staircase Entry
Restrictions due to floor plan or size of your lot do not have to prevent you from attaining your dreams for your home. Sometimes you are sitting on top of the answer to your problems without realizing that help is within reach.
Wouldn’t you love to learn that your house has an extra room that you have never seen before? If your home features unused attic space or an exceptionally generous ceiling height, then maybe your can turn that space into a loft room.
I was able to do just that. My home is about 40 years old and was built in an era when tall slanted ceilings in the living room were very popular. The rest of the house has typical eight foot high ceilings, making that room quite dramatic. In order to achieve that height in one room, the entire roof is about nineteen feet above the ground. However, the extra space above the hallway, bedrooms, and bathroom was left concealed above the typical eight foot ceiling height.
We might never have considered that space valuable had it not been for the original owner. He was an assistant District Attorney and at one point was involved in a dangerous case. He felt reason to create what we would these days call a safe room for his family to hide if a home invasion occurred.
That room was accessed by pulling down a ship’s ladder and climbing hand-over-hand up
to the attic room. I slipped many times over the years down the highly lacquered wood steps. About five years ago I decided to capture that room in a more acceptable and safe way as our guest room and my writing studio.
The first thing that I studied was a spiral staircase like the one shown here. Spiral stairs come in kits and in varying diameters typically from four feet to five feet. The structure is anchored to a steel pole in the center from which the stairs cantilever off to the sides.
Popular in England around the 1870’s perforated iron work offered ornate designs as access to lofts, balconies, attics, and outdoor spaces. Here we see a 4′–6″ diameter multi-story model with a 1.25″ aluminum handrail. This solution presents a very compact way to negotiate the different levels when compared to the requirements of a more conventional staircase. There is however one negative that must be weighed when you use any type of spiral stair: How to move furniture up and down the stair shaft.
Some people might be able to hoist the furniture in before completing the spiral installation. Obviously items such as mattresses or case goods can be awkward. Ultimately, the reason that I settled on a conventional staircase was that I wanted to be able to achieve maximum flexibility regarding the furnishings of my upstairs room.
As with every solution, you must weigh the positive aspects against the negative in order to give a fair analysis. Our example does offer a compact and unobtrusive way to access other levels from a relatively tiny space right inside the front door. I love the artistic focus on the hanging kimono that is visible from each level. This turns the trip up and down the stairs into an emotional experience.
Spiral kits come in hardwood—including oak, maple, mahogany, cherry—or metal. Some treads are metal with a wood cover, as shown here. Styles of spirals range from simple modern to fussy Victorian ornamental metal designs. Be sure to check with your local building codes to insure that you get the proper distance between balusters. If you are looking for a more unique look, research custom designs by master woodworkers. You can expect to pay more for an individual design as opposed to one of the numerous kits available through the internet or via catalog sales.
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Copyright © Copley News Service. Used with permission.
