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Form is not Following Function!

I have used these types of stairs and they are Dangerous!

yeah - I can't imagine that meeting any kind of safety code, especially with the lack of a handrail.
They do look very cool though!

that is so cool! but yes, i'd want a handrail on those steep steps because i'm a total klutz.

Oh dear. I would have to say that one would have to use these with extreme caution. Also, I can't imagine a house undergoing approval for financing passing safety inspection with these (although that would depend on the area).

it's hard to be kewl when you're a klutz.

took one look at this and that archetypal parental comment passed through my mind: you'll break your neck

Agree with the above. Plus, it'd be really hard to clean the boxes positioned behind the front ones.

Oh, and I know someone who MUST start walking up a staircase with their left foot first, so this will be rather awkward...

i can barely manage to run up and down stairs in my tallest heels, i can't imagine i'd even be able to walk up these...

As someone who has had a fear of falling down stairs all her life, this scares the snot out of me.

I drink too much wine for this...

Geez, people don't freak out when they see photos of loft ladders, so what's the problem with these? This type of solution is meant for folks in small spaces -- it's not supposed to be a replacement for a proper staircase.

i agree, petro. this is preferable to a ladder, which was probably the alternative. these look visually difficult to folks because the incline is very steep. but the renovators obviously didn't have a lot of room to work with, and a larger construction would have weighed down the room. maybe they could have put in a spiral stair, but frankly this is a better choice - a straight run allows you to go up the stairs with large objects, something you can't do on a spiral.

stairs that deviate from u.s. style "normal" rarely go over well on a blog - i've seen them get panned (usually about building code*) here on AT and especially on Inhabitat (tough crowd). thinking back to the stairs with incorporated drawers that were posted here some months ago, i'd argue even stairs normal to a lot of us get a thumbs down for being something other people have never seen before.

*some folks may not realize the building code is much less restrictive for single family residential than for an apartment, condo, townhome, multi-family housing, etc. and it's more than a little bit like tax law - which is to say a savvy architect can rearrange how the building project is presented in order to fall under different parts of the code. occupancy type, and load, is everything!

scary.

This particular set does need a handrail. But most people who dismiss these kind of stairs as unsafe have never used them. Read here for a more realistic appraisal. You do need practice to use them safely, but once you get it it's actually pretty easy.

Bottleman - what a dopey thing to say!
i have used them, they Suck.

Next week we will put in a really slippery floor at the top of the stairs. Just because its Unsafe, dont pass it off as Unsafe.

phauxtoe, are you saying that a loft ladder is less dangerous?

Actually, I'm ambulatory but have some mobility limitations from a spinal cord injury, and I can tell you at least for me, I can get up and down a ladder, but I doubt I could get up or down these stairs.

I generally can't walk on stairs reciprocally (one foot on each step) or walk on stairs without holding on to a sturdy railing, but I can climb a ladder that's fixed to a wall. (I would never try to climb up a portable ladder that I could knock over). I can climb up ladders into attics by putting two feet on each rung and using my arms more than most people would to pull myself up.