This section of our website will try to give you all of the information that you need to take the basic measurements of your new staircase. We have also provided a 'Staircase Calculator' to make things easier for you.

The 'Floor to Floor' measurement is typically the first measurement you you will take when first designing a staircase. This determins the rise of each tread, and in turn provides the minimum tread going. The 'Floor to Floor' measurement is taken from your finished floor where the bottom of staircase sits, to the finished landing floor where the staircase will hook on to the trimmer. Click [HERE] to see an illustration.

You should now have the 'Floor to Floor' measurement. Next we need to determine how many treads are going to be used in your staircase. We want to achieve a 'Tread Rise' of no more than 220mm, as an example I will use 2600mm as my 'Floor to Floor' measurement, if i divide that by 13 Treads (this includes my landing as a tread) i will get a 'Tread Rise' of 200mm. A 'Tread Rise' of 200mm is well within UK Building Regulations for a residential staircase (different classes of staircases have different maximum Tread Rises), and is comfortable enough to step up and down quite easily. Click [HERE] to see and illustration.

Now that you know how many treads your staircase is going to have, we can move on to finding out the size of each tread, this is called the 'Tread Going'. There are two basic UK Building Regulations that have to be met. The first is the 'Tread Going' on a residential staircase (different classes of staircases have different minimum Tread Going's) can be no smaller than 220mm. The second is that a residential staircase (different classes of staircases have different maximum Pitches) can't have a 'Pitch' in excess of 42 degrees. The simplest way to find out the minimum 'Tread Going' for your staircase is to divide your 'Tread Rise' by 0.9, this will give you your 'Tread going' for an almost perfect 42 degree pitch staircase. If your 'Tread Going' falls below 220mm, then your minimum 'Tread going' will be no less than 220mm. The 'Staircase Calculator' to the right of this page will do all of this for you if you are not sure. Click [HERE] to see an illustration.

The 'Width' of your staircase is the next measurement we need to figure out. Typically there is no minimum staircase 'Width' that has to be met in the UK Building Regulations, but obviously it has to be wide enough for an average person to walk up comfortably. Once you start adding winders to your staircase then you will find that you might have to increase the width of your stair, but thats something we will touch on later. We would recommend a 'Width' no smaller than 650mm, with an average staircase coming in at about 800mm, and large staircases reaching 1200mm and beyond.

By now you should have 4 main measurements, the 'Floor to Floor', 'Tread Rise', 'Tread Going' & 'Width'. Congratulations, these 4 measurements are enough to design a straight staircase! If you do want to design a straight staircase then the final measurement you will need to find out is the 'Overall Going', this is the overall length of your staircase. To find out this measurement, simply multiply your 'Tread Going' by the amount of 'Treads' in your staircase. If you divided your 'Floor to Floor' by 13 to get your 'Tread Rise', then you will have 12 'Treads' in your staircase (remember that you included the landing when dividing the 'Floor to Floor', you dont need to include the landing as a tread when calculating the 'Overall Going'). Click [HERE] to see an illustration.

Landings are a simple way of making a staircase turn through 90 & 180 degrees. There are 2 main types of landing, the 'Quarter Space Landing' and the 'Half Space Landing'. The 'Quarter Space Landing' is typically square, and enables you to turn through 90 degrees. The 'Half Space Landing' is more than twice the size of the 'Quarter Space Landing' and turns through 180 degrees. Both types of landing are normally the same width of your staircase. Click [HERE] to see an illustration.

Winder sections are another way of turning a staircase through a multitude of angles. Winders are more difficult to work out due to the inclusion of 'Box' measurements and a number of UK Building regulations that have to be met. One thing to keep in mind when working with 'Box' measurements is that they not only efffect the winder section, but they also effect the 'Overall Going's' of a staircase. Winder sections need to keep an even 'Walk-line Going' (the center measurement of each 'Winder Tread') through each 'Winder Tread' thats the same as the 'Tread Going', and the 'Winder Minimum Going' cannot be any less than 50mm (the smallest measurement on the inside of a "winder Tread'). For example, if your staircase had a 'Tread Going' of 235mm, then your 'Walk-line Going' would have to be no less than 235mm. The 'Winder Minimum Going' & 'Walk-line Going' can be altered by increasing or decreasing the 'Box' measurement, and the winder angles can be altered and tweaked to change the 'Winder Minimum Going's' for each winder. This is something that you dont really need to worry about too much since we will do all of this for you, this is just an outline of what's involved when working with winder sections. Click [HERE] for an illustration.

For further information on the UK Building Regulations, please see document K1 of the Building Regulations 2000 document, or click [HERE] for a direct link to the online version.