Moving stairs in a Cape - Huge $$$?

14 years ago

We're going to add a dormer to the front of our Cape style house and the style I'm leaning toward is a Nantucket dormer (it's basically 2 dog-house dormers connected by a shed dormer, and the shed dormer face is stepped back from the face of the dog-house dormers).

The stairs in our cape are in the middle of the first floor, so you open the front door and say, "Hello Stairs!" That means the shed dormer portion of the Nantucket dormer will be sort of wasted because it will be over these stairs (not really adding living space to the upstairs).

So I had a crazy idea ... why not slide the stairs to one side of the house? Then they would line up under a section of the roof that isn't changing, and the upstairs would be easier to lay out. The traffic flow would be better on the first floor, too, because the central stairs are in between the living and dining room. If they were moved to one side of the house we could have a more open concept and get better sightlines in the house. And the front door would open to a room, not a stairwell.

But something tells me that moving stairs is a horrendously expensive and God-awful thing to do to a house (even if you have them running parallel to the floor joists just like they are currently configured).

We're starting to look for a design/build firm in the next couple of weeks. Can anyone save me from either 1) Looking like a total idiot by suggesting a hugely expensive & nearly impossible task OR 2) Settling for a half-decent option because I'm unreasonably afraid of moving a staircase?

Background: House was build mid-1960's, goal of adding dormers is to achieve 3 normal sized bedrooms and a decent sized full bath upstairs. Currently the upstairs has 1 tiny bathroom with original fixtures, 2 shrimpy bedrooms suitable for a twin bed (1 with sloped ceiling) on one side of the stairs and 1 large bedroom on the other side of the stairs. House is 36' wide, not massive by any stretch so dormer needs to be scaled appropriately.

Thanks in advance!

-Pam

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Comments (9)

User
14 years ago
You're already dealing with a 100K remodel, so what's another 10K for a better design? Just remember that codes have changed and that modern stairs require less rise and more run, making them occupy more space, than your original stairs. Once you start down that path, you may find that you won't gain all of that much space because the stairs will take up that much more space.
kirkhall
14 years ago
I also have a cape, and wonder the same. What are the new rise/run requirements, and how do you figure the space required when there is a landing?
Thanks for any help, hollysprings.
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User
14 years ago
Depending on where you live the max riser might be 7 3/4" or 8 1/4". The minimum tread might be 9" or 10". The minimum stair width will be 36" so a landing would have to be at least 36" x 36". Winders will be required to have a minimum dimension where they come together and that also varies with where you live.

Call your building inspector and ask what code applies for a single family house renovation.
kirkhall
14 years ago
Okay. That answers a lot, Renovator. My stairs are essentially 9x9" risextread... so I would definitely be looking at a whole change of stair plan for my house. (My house is only 1982)
User
14 years ago
Are you measuring the riser and treads correctly? For a tread of 9" the riser should not be greater than 8 1/4" and even that would be a steep stair. I would want to change the stair just for the sake of safety. If you can't change it put a continuous handrail on both sides.
kirkhall
14 years ago
It is a steep stair. Thankfully, there is a landing at one point, so if you slip, you don't go all the way down. They are carpeted, so hard to measure precisely but those are the approximate measurements if I measure on the stairstepped wall on the dry wall. I would like to make them less steep for safety (my foot is a full foot long, and so I have to turn them to go down), but I am not sure how to do it. (If you search my username, you will see my layouts.)
pam29011
Original Author
14 years ago
Holly - you think $100k for adding a dormer & replacing a bathroom? Wow, that's more than I expected. About 9 years ago I added 2 8' wide dog-house dormers, a portico, and vinyl siding (the one that looks like cedar shingles) to a larger cape and it came in at $22k. A few years later I had the bathroom gutted in that house, moved tub & sink, and that came in at $10k + fixtures (we bought those ourselves).

So I was figuring closer to $50k - $60k for the larger dormer + bathroom reno. That would be about 2x the Dormer + Portico + Siding + Bathroom costs we had last time. We aren't changing the siding, the wood shingles on this house are in good shape.

I'll have to check the rise & run of the current stairs, that's a good point. We'd have the room to do a landing near the bottom if we need to but I need to see how it would impact the joint dining room & living room space.

Thanks,
-Pam
User
14 years ago
Find out what building code, if any, is used in your area. It might be available online or one of us might own it. Then measure the vertical floor to floor height and the total horizontal distance from the bottom nosing to the top nosing.

From that information it is possible to determine how much additional horizontal floor area would be covered by a new stair.
lavender_lass
14 years ago
Pam- I often wonder where people get their price information. Costs vary so much in different parts of the country...I think $100,000 might be a bit high, too.

I don't know if $10,000 for moving the stairs is accurate, either. Maybe talk to some people in your area, to get some actual bids...but it sounds like it might work out much better, if it's affordable :)