Spiral or straight flight staircases for a house extension - which should you be using?

Some house extensions offer the opportunity to relocate or adjust the existing staircase within the dwelling. Some house extensions may propose a second stair case for an access locked first floor bedroom or a loft conversion for example.

Normally the space allowed for the new stair case location usually dictates what shape an style it will be. As a guide a compact area will require winders for compacting the stairs into a tighter area. These types of stairs can have problems with getting large furniture items up to the first floor spaces but modern furniture these days is usually ‘deconstructable’ for easy installation so this may not be as bigger problem as first thought.

Straight flights are usually preferred if they are to become a dominant feature within a hallway or large open plan room for example leading up to an open or exposed gallery. However, I would be inclined not be design lead by how the stairs are to look or their format and simply fit them into a space after deciding on the relevant internal room layouts and circulation ways for example.

Many homeowner see the use of fully round spiral set of stairs as the most preferred design icon for their house extension. I would tend to disagree. Having seen and used many in previous home extension projects I think that they tend to be very awkward to use and still end up requiring a fairly large amount of floor area. They can work very well in certain situations for a house extension but I would be inclined to explore all the options of a new stair set design and siting before deciding on the first suggested scheme that you house extension designer or architect may present you with.