What makes Ray's stairs scary? They look jut fine to me. Even have a handrail.

I think the last one is the scariest one. no rails, and just in the middle of the floor! Scary!! The other ones are beautiful!

scary stairs for Kids and OLD FOLKS.

You haven't seen a "scary staircase" until you've seen this one aboard the Carnival Spirit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUz_Kr5JzPo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03TLqAkMZcU&feature=related

Number 4 seems the most difficult to me. The hand rail would be fine going up since you can extend your hand forward but, I don't see how you could hold on coming down and if you slip, it's gonna hurt.

They are certainly pretty to look at.

kgstyle, I think those are glassed in after the first few steps. Therefore, not so bad at all.

When it comes to stairs, function trumps form, every time. I have no desire to break my neck in the name of trendy architecture.

2 and 10 look scary. At least the other ones have a handrail.

Yep, they all give me sympathetic vertigo.

I started reading it prejudiced against grumpy readers. Then I thought I was looking at the 10 Most Lethal Homes on cracked.com

i only have an issue with 2 and 4. 2 with falling down to the basement, or wherever that goes and 4 is just so steep that going down would be like going down a ladder.
Once the stairs are wide enough, I don't care that they don't have a handrail. I rarely use one when going up and down stairs anyway.

I still think my favorite staircase is in the home of the Brady Bunch

I think it's interesting that people seem to assume that they will always have functional legs/ankles/balance and assume all their guests and/or future family members will likewise.

I know an very healthy 70-ish woman who lives in a lovely multilevel home (that I can't take my daughter to because my daughter uses a wheelchair). This woman has done well with all those stairs, until now... she just broke an ankle. Parts of her own home will be totally inaccessible if she needs a wheelchair or walker in the next few years. And THIS woman has normal California-building-code staircases.

Atomicranch79,

OMG, I had a Brady Bunch staircase in my home when I was growing up. I can't tell you how many times I fell on the stairs, one leg or another slipping through to just dangle there (if I was lucky - if not, I did a very painful version of the splits.)

I'd also come away with rugburns. Now those were scary stairs...

ummm... that's a side table not stairs. Sorry.

I wonder how insurance companies feel about stairs like this?

I agree with Kamilya. I know that knee injuries do a number on your ability to climb stairs, and handrails suddenly become THE MOST valuable thing in the world. Regardless of one's propensity to get injured being active, I look at staircasess as a means for children to crawl up and down, for grandparents to climb, and for people to MOVE FURNITURE into their upper floors. Please tell me how you'd move a queen mattress up some of these stairs!

As beautiful as some of them are, give me a handrail and some sort of promise that I won't fall off from 10 feet up.

"give me a handrail and some sort of promise that I won't fall off from 10 feet up."

There is no such promise even with railings or walls on both sides...
...but I'm guessing you've never seen "Gone With the Wind", "Psycho", "The Snows of Kilimanjaro", "Leave Her to Heaven", "Madame X" or "The Staircase".

(All movies where someone fell down the stairs and either miscarried a child or died)

Number 2 is one of my nightmares...not just falling...Faaaaallllllliiiiiinnnnnggggg.

How do people move stuff up the stairs in some of these? They are as bad as spiral staircases.

I have to agree with kamilya and others. Some of these staircases would be much more dangerous than a normal set of steps - function on stairs definitely trumps style. Who gives a damn what it looks like if you (or family or company) can't use it? The fiance is just now healing over a broken leg and our "normal" stairs coming up to our apartment have been bad enough on him. Some of these would just cause him to fall and rebreak the bone.

did anyone see that movie "the island"? #3 looks like tom lincoln's stairs

Order your walkers and motorized chairs now.

Universal design makes home life simpler, easier, and safer for everybody, now and in the future, allowing home owners to "age in place." It's also increasingly attractive to home buyers, in part because this country's population is aging. It can be designed to look good, too.

#1 is a call for disaster.

I don't drink, but when the bathroom calls at 3 AM, I might as well be under the influence. The bedroom and the bathroom had better be on the same floor.

My husband's knee cap was shattered during a senior high school game. Being 17 didn't protect him. My co-worker was put in a coma by a hit-and-run. Being young didn't protect her, either, and she limped for years afteward.

Mocking kids and old folks to give yourself a false sense of security is just a self-deluding denial that life can challenge any one, any time. There's no down side to universal design in residential architecture, especially with regard to stairs.

bepsf - absolutely right. Handrails mean nothing when it comes to the movies (particularly old, grand-theatre or Hitchcock-era terrors). They also don't provide security when inebriated, during a black-out, while your child's toys are lying pell-mell everywhere, or when the cat decides that it needs attention, BUT a handrail and a wall (or two) can be the difference between a twisted ankle and a broken back. ... or miscarriage etc.

That's not to say that one cannot safely navigate these "scary stairs", it just takes a lot more attention and effort than some are able to dedicate every time they need to take the stairs. Everyone forgets details from time to time. I'd rather have my occasional trip-ups be something I can laughingly shake off than incidents to look up at from the basement after a painful landing.

Even if you can handle scary stairs well today, something unrelated can happen tonight that makes handling them impossible for a long time. Your home may then become uninhabitable by you. For instance, when my healthy, young classmate lost a leg in a collision, his housing requirements changed drastically without warning. No one is immune to misfortune, but sensible design can reduce its effects.

I apologize for jumping all over the home owners whose stairs are displayed here. I did it because I didn't realize that people are emotionally attached to these photos, because this post isn't a tour or house call.

I wish to encourage photo contributors, not to make them feel bad. If you say they're built to local code, then I'll take your word for it. To make amends, I honestly can say that these stairs are dramatic and impressive.