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The following information describes the main requirements of Approved Document K staircase design.
Often the most critical areas relate to headroom, rise and going and landing provision.
When we visit your home we will have to consider the following:
1. Where can the stairway be formed?
2. Will it have adequate pitch?
3. Will the headroom be sufficient?
Steepness of stairs rise and going
The diagram below illustrates what is meant by the rise and going of a flight of stairs.
The minimum going which a new stair should have is 220mm the maximum rise is also 220mm. However it is
not possible to use these two in combination as the result would be a staircase which is too steep (45
degrees). The normal relationship is that twice the rise plus the going should be between 550mm and
700mm.
Open riser stairs
It is possible to use a stairway that is open at the back. This open type of stair requires an overlap of at least
16mm (shown on the diagram above). The Approved Document recommends that if children under the age of
5 are likely to use this stair the open rise must not allow the passage of a 100mm sphere to pass through any
of the gaps.
Think of the space and leave the rest to us
Part K - New staircase
Diagram 1 Measuring rise and going