Unit – 3 RCC Staircase

A staircase is defined as a series of steps arranged in such a fashion, that it helps commute vertical
distances by providing access to different floors of the building. The series of steps, often called a flight,
may contain one or more intermediate landings between the floor levels and an enclosure containing
the stairs is called a stairway.

TECHNICAL TERMS:

Tread or Going: Horizontal portion of a step, where the foot rests. The [Link] of Tread without
nosing shall be 300mm. However it may be reduced to not less than250mm under special
circumstances.

Riser: Vertical portion of the step. The [Link] shall be [Link] it may be increased to not
more than 190mm under floor height constraints.

Nosing: The protrusion or extra projecting part of the tread, beyond the face of the riser.

Pitch or Slope: It is the angle which the line of nosings of the stair makes with the horizontal. The
best pitch of stairs is that inclination which is achieved by twicing the riser and adding going
equals to [Link] measured in mm units, a comfortable slope is achieved when
2R+T=[Link] should however be limited to 30-45degrees.

Flight: A series of steps provided between two landings. The number of risers shall be limited to 12 per
flight.

Landing: A horizontal slab provided between two flights which is used to change the direction of stair.
In other words, it is the termination of one flight and start of the next.

Waist: The least thickness of a stair slab, on which steps are made is known as waist.

Winder: Radiating or angular tapering step.

Soffit: The bottom surface of a stair slab.

Headroom: The vertical distance from a line connecting the nosings of all treads and the soffit
above. This minimum clear head-room in any staircase shall be 2.20m,so that even a tall person can
use the stair with some luggage on his head.

Handrail: The grab bar provided for support to walk, above the pitch line.

Baluster: Vertical member supporting the handrail. The combined framework of the handrail
and baluster is known as balustrade.

Newelpost:The first vertical post supporting the handrail.

GENERAL GUIDELINES:

Following are some general guidelines to be followed while planning a staircase:

 The dimensions of the treads and risers for all the parallel steps should be the same in any
consecutive floor of the building.
 The minimum vertical headroom above any step should be2.10m.
 Generally, the [Link] steps in a flight should be restricted to twelve.
 The minimum width of a stair should be 900mm.

There are three ways of arranging a flight- as mentioned below:

a) Waist-slab type
b) Folded Tread-Riser type or free standing staircase
c) Isolated tread type
FRAMING CONDITIONS OF STAIRS:

Depending on the structural support condition, stairs can be classified as: Longitudinally supported
(Waist slab type) and Transversely supported (Cantilevered-Stringer beam,Spinewall, cranked
beam type)stairs.

a) Longitudinally supported(Along the direction of movement) –Waist Slab type

These stairs span between supports at the top and bottom of the flight and are unsupported at
the sides. They may be supported in any of the following manner:
i. Beams or walls at the outside edges of landings
ii. Internal beams at the ends of flight, in addition to beams or walls at the outside
edges of landings
iii. Landings which are supported by beams or walls running in the longitudinal direction
iv. A combination of the above three
v. Stairs with quarter landings or open well stairs.

Example with illustration:

(i) Flight supported on edges AE and DH

(ii) Flight supported on edges BF and CG in addition to beams at AE and DH
(iii) Flight supported on BF ,&CG but mid landing supported on CD and GH or as a cantilevered
slab.
(iv) Stairs with quarter landings or open well stairs.
Cantilevered landings and intermediate supports (d,e&f induce –ve moments near supports, which
reduce sagging moment thereby depth of the slab becomes economic.)
 I. Flight 1 supported on one end at footing /plinth beam at ground floor level and cranked beam at
mid landing A level.
II. Flight2 entirely supported on cranked beam (flight from mid landing A to mid landing B).
III. Flight 3 supported on end on cranked beam and the other end on floor beam.
Reinforcement details

[Link].8mmØ ØT¾

Main reinforcement min.10-12mmØT¾

Section of flight from Groundfloor to Midlanding level(typical for Dog leg&Open wellstairs)
Section of flight from Mid landing to first floor level

Alternate Section of flight with beams at the end of flight

Opening joint is the beginning of the steel reinforcement top mesh and bottom mesh in the
landing slab and closing joint is the end of the landing slab on the other side. A scissor joint
is that top reinforcement in the landing slab- transferred as bottom reinforcement in waist slab
and bottom reinforcement in landing slab -transferred as top reinforcement in waist slab. The
reason behind providing this phenomenon is to prevent the crushing of cover & failure of the
joint being opened up where there is a shift or change in the angle of the plane of the slab.

b) Transversely supported(Perpendicular to the direction of movement)-

Cantilevered,Spinewall, cranked beam type

Here, either the waist slab or the slab components of isolated tread –slab and tread –riser units are
supported on their sides or are cantilevers along the width direction from a central beam. The slab units
thus bend in a transverse vertical plane. They can be supported in the following ways:

i. Slab supported between two stringer beams or walls

ii. Doubly cantilever slabs from a central stringer/spine beam or wall
iii. Slab supported on one side by cranked beam

I. Double stringer beam(Downstandbeam) Double stringer beam(Upstandbeam)

II. Central Stringer beam/Spine wall type [Link] Cranked beam type
Reinforcemnt details:
SLABLESS STAIRS OR FOLDED PLATE STAIRS:

This type of stairs doesn’t have a waist slab and we see only the steps. Since it appears to be self
supported as independent treads and risers forming a folded pattern, it is also called a folded plate
staircase.

Section of flight at Ground floor level Section of flight at midlanding

NOSING DETAILS:
CIRCULAR &HELICAL STAIRS:

These stairs, when viewed from above, follow a circle with a single centre of curvature and a large
radius. They are generally provided at the rear end of a building, employed at location where there are
space limitations. Spiral staircases can adopt different structural configurations-the most common ones
have a circular format with a central post from which the steps radiate in the form of winders. The
overall diameter of such stairs varies from 1m-2.5m.

For this design, three main factors must be taken into account:

 How high must the staircase rise vertically? (Distance between floors)
 What is its angle of rotation?
 What is its diameter?

Considering the steps have irregular shape as they approach the

central post, it is important to define the point at which you will apply the calculation of the steps of the
staircase. It is considered that this "useful line," where the user walks, is located 2/3 from the center.

Image and text courtesy: [Link]

Flight supported on footing at Ground floor level& on floor beam at landing level
R

2/3R
LAYOUT OF A SPIRAL STAIRS:

 The diameter of a spiral stairway (upright), must be equal to the width of the tread multiplied by
the number of steps and divided by Pi (3.1416). If we set out from a diameter larger than 2 m, it
is advisable for the stairway to have a central well hole instead of an upright, since the
angle of the treads is excessively reduced

 Rises of less than 18 cm should not be foreseen for spiral stairways

 The tread line is not found in the middle of the upright. Instead, it is separated, depending on
the width of the stairway, between 250 mm and 450mm from the external part of the steps

 The headroom must not be less than 220 cm

 The last two steps, joined as one only, are normally used for the landing.

If we divide the headroom under the landing upright between the numbers of steps, we shall obtain
the height of the rise.

HELICAL STAIRS:

A helical stairs requires large amount of reinforcement to resist bending, shear and torsion forces.

Flight supported on footing at Ground floor level& on floor beam at landing level
 References –

1. Glossary of technical terms Sushil Kumar

2. NBC [Link] requirements
3. Types and design of
staircases[Link]
4. [Link]
5. [Link]
stairwell
6. Staircases -[Link]
7. Handbook on concrete reinforcement and detailing- BIS-Section10-Stairs
8. Design of staircase slabs-TOS V –Image references-Notes by [Link] & [Link] Joshi.

--------------------------*---------------------------*----------------------------*----------------------------*---------------------------