Staircases near you

Approved Document K, the 2013 edition, sets the geometry of a private stair in Table 1.1: the rise may be between 150mm and 220mm, and the going between 220mm and 300mm, with any rise in that range usable with any going in that range provided the relationship works. The maximum pitch for a private stair is 42 degrees, and the normal relationship between the two dimensions is that twice the rise plus the going comes to between 550mm and 700mm. All steps in a flight must use consistent rise and going.

Headroom is 2m of clear height on the access between levels, measured as the approved document's diagram shows. There is one relaxation, and it is the one that makes many loft conversions possible: where there is not enough space to achieve 2m, a loft conversion in a dwelling may use reduced headroom of 1.9m at the centre of the stair width falling to 1.8m at the side.

Other figures fill in the picture. In dwellings, open risers are allowed provided treads overlap by at least 16mm and a 100mm diameter sphere cannot pass through the opening. Landings at the top and bottom of every flight should be at least as wide and long as the smallest width of the flight, and should be level and kept clear, though a door may swing across a landing at the bottom of a flight in the arrangement the approved document shows, and a cupboard door may open over a landing at the top of a flight if it is kept shut in normal use. Where a stair has more than 36 risers in consecutive flights there must be at least one change of direction between flights. Tapered treads must have a going of at least 50mm at the narrow end, measured at the centre of the tread, with consecutive tapered treads using the same going. Spiral and helical stairs are designed to BS 5395-2.

Approved Document K puts the top of a handrail between 900mm and 1000mm above the pitch line or floor, allows the handrail to form the top of the guarding where the heights can be matched, and asks for a handrail on both sides where a stair is 1000mm or wider. In a dwelling, guarding is provided at the sides of flights and landings wherever there is a drop of more than 600mm.

The heights themselves come from Diagram 3.1. For single family dwellings, guarding to stairs, landings, ramps and the edges of internal floors is a minimum of 900mm for all those elements, while external balconies, including Juliette balconies, and the edges of a roof require 1100mm. Guarding must be able to resist at least the loads given in BS EN 1991-1-1 with its UK National Annex and PD 6688-1-1, and the approved document points to BS 6180 for further guidance on barrier design and infill panels.

Where a building may be used by children under five, two further rules apply and they are the ones homeowners ask about most. A 100mm sphere must not be able to pass through any opening in the guarding, and the guarding must be constructed so that children cannot readily climb it, which in practice means avoiding horizontal rails. That is why a fashionable horizontal-wire balustrade is a difficult specification in a family house, and why the gaps between balusters are not a free choice.

Scotland does not use Approved Document K at all. The domestic technical handbook supporting the Building (Scotland) Regulations 2004, in the edition applying to building warrants submitted on or after 6 April 2026, sets its own stair geometry in Table 4.3: for a private stair, a minimum rise of 100mm, a maximum rise of 220mm, a minimum going of 225mm and a maximum pitch of 42 degrees, with the aggregate of the going and twice the rise at least 550mm and not more than 700mm. The handbook adds a note that the maximum rise and the minimum going should not be used together, because the result exceeds the maximum pitch.

Widths and flights differ too. The effective width of a private stair should generally be at least 900mm, reducing to 800mm where a continuous handrail is fitted to both sides, or 600mm where the stair serves only sanitary accommodation or a single room other than accessible sanitary accommodation, a kitchen or an enhanced apartment. A flight should generally have no more than 16 rises and at least 3, with stated exceptions such as between an external door and the ground. A handrail is fixed at least 840mm and not more than 1.0m above the pitch line, and only one side of a private stair flight needs one. Clear headroom is 2.0m.

Protective barriers are set out in Table 4.7 and the heights are not the English ones: 840mm on a stair or ramp flight wholly within a dwelling, 900mm on a flight outwith a dwelling and to a gallery, landing or raised area within a dwelling, 800mm in front of an openable window, and 1100mm in all other locations, with barriers required wherever there is a difference in level of 600mm or more. Openings must prevent the passage of a 100mm diameter sphere, except that the space between a stair rise and the lowest edge of a barrier may exceed 100mm where that edge is no more than 50mm above and parallel to the pitch line. Scotland also runs a different consent process: a building warrant before the work and a completion certificate afterwards.

A new staircase, a moved staircase or a new opening in a floor is building work. Regulation 3 of the Building Regulations 2010 defines a material alteration as work that would leave the building not complying, or more unsatisfactory, in relation to Part A, paragraphs B1, B3, B4 and B5, Part M and Part T, and a stair is bound up with both the structure and the means of escape, so the threshold is usually crossed. In England and Wales that means an application to a local authority building control team or a registered building control approver.

A loft conversion adds a second layer. Approved Document B volume 1 says that where a new storey is added through conversion to create a storey above 4.5m, the full extent of the escape route must be addressed, with fire-resisting doors of at least E 20 and partitions of at least REI 30, upgrading existing doors where necessary, and where the layout is open plan, new partitions enclosing the escape route. New floors in such a conversion should achieve at least REI 30. That is why a loft stair almost never arrives on its own: it comes with doors, linings and sometimes a new partition at the foot of the existing flight.

Scotland requires a building warrant before work starts and a completion certificate afterwards, and Northern Ireland works to the Building Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2012, where stairs, ramps, guarding and protection from impact are Part H. A listed building anywhere in the United Kingdom raises a separate consent question, and an original staircase is often one of the features the listing exists to protect, so the conversation with the local planning authority should happen before any design work.

A staircase quotation is really three quotations: the flight itself, the structural work around it, and the making good afterwards. The variables are whether the stair goes in the same opening or a new one, whether the floor has to be trimmed, the timber species and whether it is painted or clear-finished, the balustrade design and the number of balusters, whether winders or a landing are involved, headroom constraints that force a bespoke rather than a stock flight, and, in a loft conversion, all the doors and partitions the escape route requires. Access for a one-piece flight up a narrow hall can decide whether the stair is made in the workshop or built in place.

LokalMatch is the introduction. Set out the job once with your postcode — where the stair goes, what it replaces and whether a loft conversion is involved — and staircase makers, joiners and builders covering your area will contact you. Homeowners pay nothing; the professionals pay for the requests they receive. LokalMatch does not build staircases, does not set prices and does not vet, rank or recommend anyone, so asking each quoting business how they will satisfy building control, and who is applying, is a question worth putting early.