S T A I R S

INTRODUCTION
Stairs are the conventional means of access between floors in buildings. A stair is described as a set of steps leading form one floor to another and a staircase includes the part of the building surrounding the stair.

Stairs should be constructed to provide real easy and safe access up and downs, with steps that are either laborious or difficult to climb within a compact area so as to take up no excessive floor area.

In the building, stairs have two main functions: firstly that of normal everyday access from floor to floor, and secondly they must provide an easy and rapid escape, from the upper floor in case of emergency (as fire or earthquakes).

For this reason even if most buildings have other means of access between floors as elevators (lift) or moving staircase they must have also stairs !!!

The slope according to the use of the stair

DEFINITION OF TERMS

Step - is a short horizontal surface for the foot

to facilitate ascent from one level to another. It commonly consists of a horizontal element called tread and a vertical element called a riser. The external junction of the tread and riser is called a nosing and it provides as wide a surface of tread as practicable.

Main elements of the stair: 1 - flight, 2- strings, 3- landing, 4- walking line, 5- handrail, 6- balusters, 7- tread or going, 8- riser

 Rise - is the vertical distance between the upper surface of two consecutive steps and the rise of a flight is the total height between the floors or landings in connections. Going (or run) is the horizontal distance between the nosing or front edges, of two consecutive steps. Flight - the word flight describes a continuous series of steps between floors or landings. A flight should have no fewer than three and no more than sixteen steps. Strings or stringers - act as inclined beams, which supports the steps. Stingers can be fixed to a wall or can be supported by other structural members. Strings or stringers - act as inclined beams, which supports the steps. Stingers can be fixed to a wall or can be supported by other structural members. Pitch or slope - the inclination of a stair that is the angle made between the line of nosing and the line of floor or landing. Landing - is a platform between flights. It serves as rest between flights and to turn on a stair.

Non-skidding materials must be used for the finishing of stair and

landings, to prevent the sliding of the leg.

Classification according to their destination:

Classification category
1

Classif. Criterion
2

Used for
3

Notes
4

- monumental;

- used as access stirs at the entrance and maximum first two floors in important buildings; - there are used in multistorey buildings; - stair flight breadth, bfl

- has a functional or architectural (aesthetical) destination;

- provide the usual

- main;

vertical circulation and escape evacuation; - for stair breadth it is advisable tat l2.40m.

- secondary; - stairs for fire escape; - industrial;

- used for access to underground floor or roof or certain floor;

- used just for escape risky situations;

- with minimal breadth for the flight; - made usually of metal and placed outside the building; - made usually of metal with steeply flight (60o) without risers;

- access for the maintenance or utilisation of industrial equipment.

classification after the dimension of their rise:

Classification category
1
- low steps, (hrise16.5 cm);

Classif. Criterion
2

Used for
3
- main stairs in high rise buildings (>Gfl+3F), kindergartens, schools, hospitals, etc.;

Notes
4
- proper for the use of children, old age or ill person;

- regular steps, (16.5hrise17.5 cm);

- rise of the step, h

- main stairs in low rise buildings (<Gfl+3F) or secondary stairs in high rise buildings; - secondary stairs in low rise building, access to the underground or on the roofs; - vertical

- most comfortable and commonly used stairs; - stairs with hrise> 19.5cm are admitted just as service stairs for one just floor.

- high steps, (17.5hrise22.5 cm);

- steep stairs, (22.5 hrise 30cm);

Classification according the resistance to fire action:

1 2
3 4

- incombustible; - fire resistance of materials used for construction

- in the buildings with fire resistance class I, II, and III; - in the buildings with fire resistance class I, II, and III;

- reinforced concrete, stone and ceramic materials stairs;

- hardly combustible;

- metallic stairs;

- semicombustible; - combustible;

- fireproofed timber stairs;

- timber stairs.

Classification after the materials used to construct:

1 2 3 4

- timber stairs

- for temporary buildings, internal stairs in duplex apartments; - aces for ramps or platforms, fire escape, service or maintenance stairs for tall special buildings (reservoir, tanks, towers, chimney shafts); - for external access in the buildings; - internal stairs in chalets or rest houses - main and secondary stairs social - cultural or dwelling buildings;

- are lightweight, warm, aesthetical and easy to construct but combustible; -of oak wood for main stairs and fir for secondary stairs;
- are lightweight, easy to construct but determine high steel consumption; - metallic stair elements must be protected against corrosion, - the stones( as granite, grit stone, limestone) must resist to friction, aggressive water and atmospheric agent action; - of pressed bricks minimal class M100; with

- metallic stairs;

- stone stairs; - ceramic stairs; - reinforced concrete stairs;

materials used for construct ion

- there are incombustible, with high rigidity and bearing capacity and can be made in different shapes; - most common stairs.

Based on the plan form there are:

The simplest type of stair is a straight flight between floors, without landings. Such a staircase occupies a long narrow area and it is a useful form of stair when the total rise is no too great. If the floor height is greater, the straight flight is tiring to ascend, and the flight can be divided by a landing placed in the length of the stair.

If the floor height is greater, the straight flight is tiring to ascend, and the flight can be divided by a landing placed in the length of the stair.

Most common stairs

used in timber construction are called dogleg. This stair presents two flights, which return on each other about a single newel so that the handrail of the lower flight stops slight against the underside of the upper flight.

The open well is a form of stair that has two flights returning each other but with a space called well between the two flights. When the flights are at right angles quarter space landing is formed, and when they return a half space landing is formed. With landings, the flights of steps are not so long and there is grater flexibility in planning, but the area occupied by staircase is increased.

Considering the construction or structural form of the stair :

- Newel stair when vertical posts, called newel or newel posts, are used in
timber or metallic stairs at the end of the flight to support the strings and connect them to the floors.

- Another form is the geometrical stair. In this type there are no newels, the strings and handrails being continuous from floor to floor

Dimensional design of stairs

Historical trends
Rules of thumb for determining satisfactory rise/run ratios have existed at
least since Classical times. In De Architectura, Vitruvius suggests a unit rise of

between 9 and 10 inches, and a unit run between 18 and 24 inches. To modern
tastes, this proportion would create a very stately stair. Sir Henry Wooten

(15681639) suggested that the unit rise not exceed 6 inches and that the unit
run be between 1 and 1 feet. Both authors, however, are describing public

buildings or grand houses.

Jacques-Francois Blondel (17051774) argued in his Cours d'Architecture that

the rise/run ratio should be based on the length of the human pace, which he took
to be 25.5 inches. Since in one step on a staircase a foot travels by two risers and

a tread, Blondel arrived at the formula two times the unit rise, plus the unit

run = 25.5", or unit rise = (25.5" - unit run) over 2. This formula works well only
for moderate values for unit rise (or unit run). It was, nonetheless, enshrined in
the National Fire Code.

Width of the flight In most cases it will be necessary to allow

sufficient width for two persons to pass side by side, which requires a minimum of 100 cm to 170 cm. For domestic stairs, a space of 87...90 cm from wall face to the handrail is accepted as reasonable. For staircases in offices, public buildings and institutions, the width should be enough for the people to pass comfortably in concurdance uith the number of fluxes. The number of fluxes is calculated with the relation:

F=N/C

Landing breadth near lifts: A -lift with hinged doors opening in landing direction, B - lift with sliding door.

CONSTRUCTION OF STAIRS
1. Timber stairs
2. Metal stairs 3. Stone stairs 4. Concrete stairs

1. Timber Stairs

Joints between risers and treads

2. Metal stairs
Cast-iron escape stair The oldest type of metal stair is probably the external cast-iron and steel fire escape stair. Metal stairs are also used as
temporary stairs in the process of constructing the building.

strings made of mild steel, 10 mm thick and 175 mm high in section. The metal treads are bolted to the strings; treads are made of perforated cast-iron or mild steel chequerplates. Perforated cast-iron risers can also be fitted if require; landings are formed of 13 mm cast-iron or mild steel chequers plates.

Spiral stairs -

Using the same materials standard newel-type spiral stairs can be constructed.

Fixed metallic ladders - used

as industrial stairs (to reach some high equipment) or as means of escape from fire.

3. Stone stairs
Stone staircases are little used today, mainly because of their cost and the weight of construct.

Bricks are used for external steps and

occasionally for internal use. The steps must be formed of good hard, square bricks to withstand wear and are bedded

in cement mortar on concrete.

4. Concrete stairs
Reinforced concrete stairs are widely used in almost all types of buildings. They are strong, hard-wearing, fire-resisting and make possible a large variety of forms.
The reinforced concrete offers the possibility to build better stairs in different constructive solutions and for this it is used for access and as means of fire escape stairs in most buildings of more than two storeys.

String stairs -

Where there are loadbearing walls around the staircase it is generally economic to build the landings into the side walls as oneway spanning slab or supported by landing trimmers. The strings may span between landings to support the flights.

The presence of the strings allows using a thinner flight than in the case of slab type therefore this stair has somewhat lighter weight.

Inclined slab stair

- Excepting the cases when the span of the flight is very long, the stair can be designed without strings. The flight is designed to act as a slab spanning between the trimmers on a distance that is measured on a horizontal line between the centres of the trimmers. The effective depth is the waist thickness of the slab.

Cranked slab stair - This type of stair doesn't has trimmers.

In this case, the top and bottom landings, together with the flight, are designed as an individual structural slab spanning between enclosing walls or frame.

Stairs with stepped soffit flights

Monolithic cantilever stair

- In this case the flights and landings are cast in situ and cantilevered out from a wall and cast in situ together with this. The wall that supports the stair elements can be the enclosing wall of the entire staircase or a central spine one.

Continuous slab stair

It consists structurally of a continuous slab, monolithic with the floors, which runs from one floor to the landing level, turns on itself and continues without any support to the next floor. The stair is supported at the floors above and below and therefore it has to resist not only to the normal stresses of bending and shear, but also to torsion. In these conditions it is more expensive

THE STRUCTURAL FORM OF THE STAIRS AND DESIGN ELEMENTS

The choice of the structural form for the stairs is determined by functional and aesthetical requirements in

accordance with the architectural plane and the position of other structural elements of the building in the
proximity of the stair.

There are many structural forms for the stairs

The estimation of stresses and deformations, for the design of the stairs, is made taking in consideration the structural type, the bearing condition for the stair elements, and the supported loads (permanent or dead loads and live loads from the traffic on the stairs). For the flights the dead loads is uniformly distributed on the sloping surface and the live load is uniformly distributed on a horizontal surface .

For the stair with cantilevered steps or slab, the fixing and stability conditions in the supporting wall, must be provided. For this the loadbearing wall, that support the stair, must be loaded with enough dead load, from the upper floors, to fix strongly the stair elements. The degree of fixing depends on the relative values of vertical reactive forces Ns and Ni and of the stability Ms and fixing Mi moments. If Ns and Ms increase comparative to Ni and Mi than the degree of fixing will increase also.