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Size of landing at door inside stairwell

Michael Cobb

Michael Cobb

SAWHORSE
Joined
Mar 30, 2020
Messages
3
Location
Healdsburg, California
I'm trying to establish a "best practice" during the schematic design phase of a commercial building when sizing the door landing inside a stairwell. There are lots of variables, but if we assume a 44" egress width on a stair between floors that has two flights, how large would the door landing need to be. I'm assuming the door would be 36".

I'm having trouble uploading an image to this site so I guess I'll just cross my fingers someone out there understands the nature of my question. I'm not looking for the depth of the landing (basically two times the stair width). I'm talking about the dimension in the perpendicular direction.

0134108c-f4e9-4d5a-a76d-e1ba5684685d

0134108c-f4e9-4d5a-a76d-e1ba5684685d
 
Welcome

Forum supporting members can load direct

Otherwise you have to turn it into a link and than post the link

Sorry I don’t do landings

Give it a day or two
 
Welcome Michael...

Unless you are a paid member, you cannot post images within your posts. You can utilize links if you have a preferred site to upload to.

Is the stair part of an accessible means of egress?
 
You have to maintain the required egress width; so, if the stairs are required to be 44 inches wide, then the landing must also be at least 44 inches wide.
 
Also, IBC 1005.7.1 requires that doors not reduce the required width by more than a half while opening, and 7" when fully opened.
 
Paul Sweet said:
Also, IBC 1005.7.1 requires that doors not reduce the required width by more than a half while opening, and 7" when fully opened.
Click to expand...

Best practice to go with 48" min. and you will rarely be wrong. Same with your stair width, minimums are just that.
 
Long, log ago in my internship one of the Old Principals always told me to do a 5' stair landing at schematic design. It wasn't till years later I figured out why..... A door swing can not reduce the required landing by more than half...… Given a door 36" and a required landing of 44", 36"+44"/2=58". This is why the Ole guy said to use 5', easy to remember and a little fudge factor.
 
khsmith55 said:
Long, log ago in my internship one of the Old Principals always told me to do a 5' stair landing at schematic design. It wasn't till years later I figured out why..... A door swing can not reduce the required landing by more than half...… Given a door 36" and a required landing of 44", 36"+44"/2=58". This is why the Ole guy said to use 5', easy to remember and a little fudge factor.
Click to expand...
That would be the case if the door was located centered on the landing. However, most doors are located off to one side and the swing would typically not reduce the width by more than half.
upload_2020-3-30_10-40-18.png
upload_2020-3-30_10-40-28.png
 

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RLGA said:
That would be the case if the door was located centered on the landing. However, most doors are located off to one side and the swing would typically not reduce the width by more than half.
View attachment 6556
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Depending on the hinge side, this may not quite work if the door is located on the side walls of the stairwell shaft; not the end wall as shown.
 
Ty J. said:
That configuration works, but put a left side hinge on the opposite wall and we have an issue. (Or a right side hinge in the location shown)

Hence why I started off by saying "depending on the hinge side".
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I agree, but that would be a pretty dumb architect to do that in the first place.
 
Ron, the OP was talking about a "rule of thumb" at Schematic Design, I still say at the early stages you can't go wrong with 5' no matter what the final configuration of the door is.
 
I realize the the question was probably asked from a life-safety standpoint, but there are several other accessibility factors that might make the landing even larger than 5'. Keep in mind that:

(a) a wheelchair user might enter the stairwell, realize this is not for them, and need to turn around and go back out the door they came in.

(b) An "accessible means of egress" system might (or might not) include an enlarged stair landing per 1009.3 and 1009.6:
upload_2020-3-31_10-50-57.png
upload_2020-3-31_10-58-6.png
You can see how this could easily become (30"+ 44") or even (48" + 44").

(c) A door requires 18" strike side manuevering clearance on the pull side per ADAS 204.2.4.1.

(d) A bottom landing at a stair requires a handrail extension of 12" plus tread width per ADAS 505.10.3 before the handrail returns to the wall.
In this situation, if the door into the stairwell was next to a bottom landing, you'd need (from the back wall to first riser):
3-4" of space for the door closer and door frame
36" for the door
Minimum 2" for the handrail return, maybe 4" if you don't want the return to cover the door frame.
23" for the handrail extension (assuming 11" stair treads)​
Total is at least 5'-4" or more.
 

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Yikes said:
(d) A bottom landing at a stair requires a handrail extension of 12" plus tread width per ADAS 505.10.3 before the handrail returns to the wall.
In this situation, if the door into the stairwell was next to a bottom landing, you'd need (from the back wall to first riser):
Click to expand...
Actually, the 12-inch extension is no longer required by the ADA Standards or the ANSI Standards
 
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