Stairs to Die For
Posted: March 1st, 2010 | Filed under: Building Materials | Tags: floating stairs | 5 Comments »
I mean, for real. I get hard time because of our yet to be redone railings, but this post on Emma’s Designblogg got me thinking….
What kind of “favors” are the homeowners slipping the code inspectors for these houses?! I think these are stunning to look at…as an art installation. Scares the crap out of me to think of climbing them after cocktails.
Seriously, I LOVE the look, but, practical or safe…uh…no. How is this allowed?
I ask my architect (and lawyer for that matter) friends to educate me on how this is legal, when I couldn’t have 3 measly steps to the driveway without a honkin’ railing to meet code. REALLY. I need to know. Is there a waiver you sign that says “…whoever lives/visits here can be maimed/killed with a single misstep (heh), yet the stairs will remain blameless….”
via Stair Porn
via stair porn
From where I’m sitting, some code inspector must be planning his next vacation home purchase when he sees plans with these in them, cuz frankly, I don’t think a night out with some lap dances will suffice here. Thoughts? Insights?
I’m guessing these are located in the UK where the stair codes are much more lax.
Two words. No way. These scare the shit out of me. Pretty eye candy, but I would break my neck. Sober.
As for the code, what gives? When we were finishing our basement the inspector was so nit picky about the tiniest bit of nonsense.
Different ,municipalities have different codes. We had a major challenge with even getting horizontal railing approved for our house. In 90% of STL they are fine as the national code has been loosened, but in Crestwood, they have decided that they are still “climbable” and are a hazard… Our railing fabricator was able to confirm that as long as they were covered during the inspection, they would be fine.
They went out of their way to produce cut Masonite panels to over that rails for inspection. The ironic thing is that one of the carpenters did not realize what they were and had thrown them away about an hour before the inspection! And again, to prove that all our fighting, phone calls and rule bending was totally a waste of time, the inspector never said a word about the exposed horizontal rails. Arrrgh! But awesome!
Couple pics of our final railing.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_exmtAxeXKR4/S3rSXvpjqXI/AAAAAAAABOY/2VVieOeJW2U/s1600-h/IMG_1649.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_exmtAxeXKR4/S3rSXcNFUVI/AAAAAAAABOQ/J0d1MDu4wu0/s1600-h/IMG_1650.jpg
http://rockhillhouse.blogspot.com/2010/02/horizontal-happiness.html
Had we built the house out in the boonies near one of my freinds we could have done whatever we want because there are few building codes out in the sticks.
Hell to the no. I am such a freak about stairs anyway, there is NO WAY I could ever walk up and down these death traps.
Maybe they photoshopped the rails out…?
i agree it’s too scary even to look at. and the circular staircase would look even cooler with a minimalist rail!