By Lance McCarthy
Fill in the blank:
A recent study ranks ________________ as the second leading cause of accidental death.
You cheated and read my title! Yeah. Car accidents are first, but stair falls are second. That’s right. Not handguns or marijuana or Caitlin Jenner or even ISIS. Turns out the boring ol’ staircase is a stone cold killer. I’m imagining a trailer for that horror movie…Stairway to Hell! or Nightmare on Elm Stairs! No? Maybe?
I have decided to bravely serve as tour guide to the home. Each month I dedicate one of my columns to illuminating some part of the house that most people might not know much about. This week’s topic is Stairs.
A few scary facts:
- About every 6 minutes a child in the U.S. receives ER treatment for stair related injuries
- As many as one third of all stair accidents occur on the first or last step
- Over 90% of injuries occur during descent. That’s because walking down a staircase is really just a controlled fall. Think about it. You are purposely falling downward, but trying to stay on your feet while doing it.
- 3 out of 4 stair falls happen where there is no handrail.
- About every 3 minutes there is a stairlift commercial on a show I am watching. (ok, I made that one up)
Words to Know:
Tread: The part of the stair you step on. Each tread should overhang the tread below to make for safer climbing.
Run: The measurement of the depth of the tread.
Riser: The vertical part of the stair.
Rise: The measurement of the height of the riser
Tips to make your stairs safe:
- Make sure there is a handrail all the way down. It should be continuous, turn back into the wall at the top and bottom, and be strong enough to allow a 200 lb. pull sideways. (Or 204 if it is my stair).
- Make sure the step is less than 7 ¾” in height and the steps shouldn’t vary in height more than ⅜”. Trip on the same stair every time? I guarantee it is a slightly different height than the other steps in that staircase.
- Make sure the treads are at least 12” deep. This is so that you can fit your whole foot on the stair.
Interesting stair ideas:
Pic 1
How about stashing your amazing book collection in each step?
Pic 2
And the award for coolest squiggly tree design staircase goes to…
Pic 3
Some great storage ideas
Pic 4
Cool spiral staircase. Impractical. But cool.
