Omaha daily bee., 1909-09-26

NH4W corner, ts now carefully de-
- signed as an impor. ant fea .urs
and located In the most prominent part OF
the house, As stairway designing and con-
structlon Is not confined By precedent OF
tradition to any one form or style, a broad
Held Is opened to the designer in which b
make the best OF his Unborn originality; an
opportunity which he rarely fails to avail
himself OF, sometimes presenting a stair
way OF beautiful proportions and desigl.
ana at other times a hopeless l%ncongruity.
Stairway building is, in fact, an art by
itself, not only in It's design, but also 10
Its construction, requiring considerable skill,
in ~joinery, as It is usually built of many
light and small parts all Joined together
with concealed bracing and much use of
glue This calls for highly trained labor,
which has developed into a special class
Of joiners who make stair-buildlng their
only work.
The front and back stairway and tho
chimneys when located properly on the
first floor usually control the second floor
plan. II Ia, therefore, very necessary TO
consider the desired arrangement of the
&c, ond floor when planning the stairs.
Stairways present more complications thar
any other feature Of the house. ? Many
times q whole plan has to be remodeIed to
obtain room for a single extra tread. Now
to the layman OF the unearing designer the
omission OF this extra tread may not seem
. vital consideration, but 70 the old folks
or tho small children the extra half inch
given to each riser TO make up for the
omission Is greatly felt before the top of
the stair Is reached. The average house
with the first floor nine and a half feet
from floor 10 ceiling requires seventeen
risers ~(sixteen treads) from floor to floor.
Then there Is the head room above a stair.
Many times II is found necessary on the
second floor to project one Of the rooms
over the lower parts Of the stair, thus re-
ducing the head room over the stair as
you ascend. When this is necessary be
sure you do not project the second story
over more han the first -four risers, three
treads) unless your first story is more than
nine and a half feet in the clear.
The first consideration In stair building
is the plan. second the number and rela-
ton OF risers and tread which will be dealt
with at some length later on, and the last,
but very important, consideration. the de-
sign.
For the economy Of space and the mere
purpose OF passing from one floor to an
other, the old spiral stairway handed down
TO us from times remote. serves the pur-
pose admirably. But In the present day
Il has almost become an axiom that wind
ers OF any sort should never be included
in a stairway, The plans usually adopted
for the ascent are one run and no landing.
runs with one landing or three runs
with two landings. making In the second
and third cases one and two right angle
turns. One run OF stairs from floor TO
floor 70 not advisable, as Il makes the
ascent tedious work unless more space Is
allowed the stair for wide tresds than can
usually be afforded In the average house.
Three runs and two landings make an
IDEAL ascent. but this usually neoessitates
an ~unfightly prominence Of the under side
Of the last run unless IL is skilltuuy built
in.
One principal run, a broad landing and
a short final run. makes an ideal stair.
This always allows OF considerable space
under the landing that can be used as a
closet, a Iavatory, a repository for books
or a rOomy nook.
Try to so plan your home that the stair
way does not rave the appearance OF being
crowded. The plan Of placing part Of The
stair or the landing out into a bay pro-
Jeeting from the outside wall Is an abomina-
ion. While I ADMIT that II u often a handy
way Of SOLVING the stair problem. II V one