Thanks, Weedyacres. I was thinking of doing this as part of a kitchen remodel, which would mean not DYI and the whole project would be on the up-and-up, which would mean somebody could notice code in relation to the steps. But hiring a handyman to redo the steps without asking questions, separate from the larger project, might be the saner option.

Years before we bought our 1919 bungalow, a PO completed an addition which enclosed the original outside stairs. Our house is similar to yours in that we have a 1/2 flight of stairs. The headroom always required bending to avoid decapitation :).

About 9 years ago, we did a kitchen remodel.and the work area included the stairs. We were required to make the headroom over the stairs confirm to current code. In our case, we planned for a closet over the stairs. The result for us is that we have to step up one step to get into the closet.

i live in a place with pretty strict adherence requirements to building codes.

Hmm... my back bedroom closet, which is already microscopic, is what's directly over the bottom of these stairs (above where the end of that mattress is in my pic). I'd hate to lose any space from one of only two closets in the whole house, but it might be possible to raise the floor of that closet and still have room to hang clothes above. There goes my shoe and vacuum storage... I will keep that in mind as a possibility. Thanks!

The photo does't show the ceiling opening relationship to the stair well but it does't appear that the headroom is going to be improved without making the stairs steeper unless, of course, a riser can be removed. That can be easily determined if you measure the floor to floor height. If you can use 6 risers @ 8 to 8.25", the appropriate tread run for that riser size would be no greater than 9" plus a 1" nosing. That should shorten the stairs enough for adequate headroom.

As for the building code, discreetly find out what riser and tread sizes are required. Sometimes they are modified from the IRC requirement. Where I live they can be 8.25" rise x 9" run for residences although that would only be used for a basement stair. It is also possible for the building official to accept an "alternative design" if presented properly. Or your community may have adopted the Int. Existing Building Code that allows the means of egress to be "repaired" if the level of protection is maintained.

In any event, be sure to call it a "repair" and try to stay within the 8.25 x 9 riser and tread dimensions. Ordinary repairs are usually exempt from building permits so you might just go ahead and do it without a permit. However, This stair should be properly designed so I would not ask a handyman to rebuilt it unless you provide clear drawings. Remember, to maintain a comfortable stair angle, when the riser gets taller, the tread run should get shorter not longer.t Also, to avoid falls, don't carry a soft pad and/or a thick carpet over the nosing.

But the FIRST thing to do is install a code required HANDRAIL before someone gets hurt again. It puts a chill up my spine to look at the photo with that wall corner sticking out at the bottom (can that be removed or angled?). IMO this stair would be unacceptably dangerous even with code compliant risers, treads and headroom.

Sanford, agreed about the handrail! I will do this whether I alter the stairs or not. Besides the question of code and general safety, the main thing I do with these stairs is carry laundry baskets down to the basement, so something to hold onto with one hand while I go very slowly down is crucial. I don't think it's possible to alter that corner (it relates to the underpinnings of a weird addition on the back of the house), but it would be possible to put a railing along the right side so that the railing ends at that bump, so there'd be no chance of a person hitting it, as well as a railing attached to the ski-slope-style diagonal piece on the other side.

Let me take a few more measurements and check back in in a sec.

OK: The total horizontal distance from the leading edge of the landing to the end of the open headroom above is 48.5". The total rise from basement floor to landing floor is 50". (See marked-up picture.)

The current individual stair rises, reading from the bottom, are 4", 7", 7", 7", 7", 7", 6".

The stair treads are mostly a smidge over 8" deep, which is fine when I'm going upstairs but really too short when I'm going downstairs, when the balls of my feet are over empty air and only the back 3/4 of my feet are actually on the treads.

Having slept on this for a couple of nights, I'm thinking it would be better to sacrifice the floor of the closet in the back bedroom and open more headroom and extend the stairs by a couple of steps than to go to all the trouble of rebuilding and end up with too-short treads and/or uncomfortably-high risers.

Here is the relevant portion of the original plan of the house (slightly altered because an addition without basement was later added at the back of the house). But this shows the relationship of this staircase to the closet in the room to the left.

Why don't you build a new, larger closet on the south wall of that bedroom and give up your existing, small one to the stair overhead?

In our current house, we did basically that. The small closet already had a step cut into it for the basement overhead, so we didn't increase that, but we did build a larger closet on a different wall.

Here are some more details and photos of our room remodel.

weedyacres, your pics are very helpful. For better or worse, in my house, the bathroom you see on the plan was already expanded ~18" back into that back bedroom, so although the catalog plan says the bedroom is 9' 6" deep, it's really only 7' deep north to south. That makes for a very comfortable sized bathroom, but a weird back bedroom, and it used up the space where one might otherwise have put a better closet. There is also an 18' wide, 7' deep enclosed porch along the back of the house that's been incorporated into the back bedroom. So together, the reduced-size original bedroom plus the enclosed porch make a very awkward L, with a, 18 x 7 long arm and an 11 x 7 short arm. That may sound like a lot of footage, but it actually just makes awkward alcoves. I use the short leg, that backs onto the bathroom, as the desk area of my study, as seen in this pic. I took the pic kneeling on the bed that is in the alcove at the end of the long leg of the L.

On the other hand, while I was back there climbing around trying to get this pic, I measured how deep that closet really is. It's 41" deep! It's a very frustrating closet to use, because it's too deep to get at anything in the back. It would actually be an improvement to sacrifice the back part of the closet to expand the stair headroom.

IMO there should be 5 treads and 6 risers. The risers would be 8 3/8" tall and the treads would be 8 5/8" plus a 1" nosing. That should increase the headroom by as much as 5" but you would have to draw it to know for sure. I don't see any other reasonable option.

You should also try to remove the sharp wall jog at the bottom of thr stairs.

But it won't really be safe until you add a handrail and reduce the softness of the carpeted nosings. People can still fall down well proportioned stairs.

It seems to me if you went down the stairs backward you'd be bending forward and the head clearance would not be a problem. Going up - same thing.

Start down backward with your right foot first then at the bottom your left foot would be on the last stair next to the corner by the matress and you could just pivot to your right off that left foot.

Your toes would be on the treads and everything would be under control. :-)

Not only that if your foot slipped off the step you'd fall on your face instead of the back of your head - much safer of a fall.

its usually safer to look where you are going except on a ladder.

You will have to bust up the whole thing and start with new stringers. Anything but that will be a major pain to mess with. It would be better to just make the stairs outside as a whole unit and bring it in and attach it ledger board style to the landing above. You are going to want minimum of 10" treads with 1-1/4" nosing, which will require a greater angle to the risers. I see you already have angled risers but 8" treads is probably why you fell but since you are redoing them, you can fix the different riser heights as well. Why did you never install a handrail? That alone might have prevented your tumble.

You said the existing riser heights are 4", 7", 7", 7", 7", 7", 6" which totals to 45" but the total height dimension on the photo is shown as 50" which would mean the 7" risers are actually 8" or the dimension in the photo is 5" too tall. Which is it?

You give the distance to the wall above but not the total run of the stairs. Judging by the photo the stair run is about 6.5" shorter than the 48.5" dimension which makes each existing tread run about 7". I suspect the 8" +/_ tread dimension you measured included the nosing which is added after the stair rise and run is designed.

So the existing stair riser is about 7" or 8" and the tread run is probably about 7". Without the correct information for the stairwell no one can tell you how to fix this stair.

But I can assure you that a tread depth of 10" (plus a nosing) would not fit in the stairwell and would require reframing the floor opening to be as much as 18" longer. That might be expensive if the floor framing is not parallel to the back wall and it might create an awkward transition from the upper part of the stairway unless it also has a 10" tread run and a 7 1/2" +/- riser.

What you need is properly measured plan and section drawings (or rough sketches) of the stairwell with all relevant dimensions shown to the face of risers and treads ignoring carpet and tread nosings. You need that for the upper part of the stair too. Otherwise, just hire a contractor and tell him to fix it and hope for the best.

Sanford, you're quite right: the floor is so out of plumb (the landing, the stairs above it, and the kitchen flood above that) and the carpet covering the stairs is so squishily padded that it is very hard to get accurate measurements just by waving a tape measure around. Any project would definitely involve leveling the landing, reconstructing the stairs from the landing up to the kitchen, and leveling the kitchen floor. I'm persuaded that it makes sense to have this set of stairs done properly from scratch at the same time.

Vith, sorry not to have replied earlier. I haven't been in the house all that long. I installed a handrail on the half flight up from back door right away, because it was MUCH steeper; I should have done it on this flight, too, but it seemed like less of a problem until...HA! Now I know.

Any chance that wall bumpout can be moved? My first guess is they wouldn't put that there unless it had to be, but who knows. Another idea, maybe remove the dividng wall between the hallway and the stairs and turn the stairs 90 degrees. You will have head room issues either way unless that can be addressed also.

Vith, that whole wall that includes the bumpout and the right wall of the staircase is below grade, and it's the back wall of the basement of the original house. Outside is underground, and not an easily explored area underground, because above it is an old enclosed porch, so you'd have to get into the crawl space under there and then dig down alongside the foundation. If I were going to redo the staircase, I would definitely do some exploratory work from the inside to try to figure out why that bumpout is there on the inside and whether it can be removed to make room to extend the stairs straight ahead.

As for turning the stairs 90 degrees, I'd love to be able to do that, but the required headroom would go through the middle of my kitchen floor above. If I extended the stairs straight, I could (pending structural issues) borrow the headroom from the bedroom closet – much better.