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Old 09-05-2018, 07:52 AM
 
Location: Pikesville, MD
2,983 posts, read 3,046,733 times
Reputation: 4552

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Quote:
Originally Posted by charmed59 View Post
Has anyone on here seen the house in person or a copy of the floor plans? I’m not convinced there isn’t a back staircase to the top. I’ve seen (and had) back staircases in many a house, and most of them are not worth showing in the pictures. But they are functional for moving stuff.

Doubt there's a back staircase, as there's only the one room up there. No need to get to it from two directions.
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Old 09-05-2018, 11:58 AM
 
6,192 posts, read 7,303,625 times
Reputation: 7558
I don't like them. I do see them in some of the small houses in Philadelphia when I am checking out that real estate and occasionally in the condos/coops by me.

The only time I saw it and thought it made sense was for a spiral staircase leading to a roof deck or something similar.
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Old 09-05-2018, 12:06 PM
 
Location: Kalamalka Lake, B.C.
3,563 posts, read 5,342,744 times
Reputation: 4975
Default outside the house

Quote:
Originally Posted by fluffythewondercat View Post
These seem popular in Arizona homes. I get that a spiral staircase doesn't take up as much space as risers would. But I look at these things and wonder: How do they move furniture up them?

I am far from confident of my ability to climb a spiraling staircase backwards while carrying a large piece of furniture or a mattress.

This house has a very nice spiral staircase (picture #7):

https://www.redfin.com/AZ/Scottsdale.../home/27867939

There doesn't seem to be any other way to access the second floor. Ideas?
We put the iron spiral staircase OUTSIDE the house but that was a new build, so incorporated in the design and on acreage.
Moving "stuff" you hoist it up on ropes and take out the second story WINDOW. We had to do that on remos. of old houses that are not up to code, so people forget these access entries are not wide enough...by an inch.
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Old 09-05-2018, 02:25 PM
 
Location: Fort Lauderdale, Florida
11,936 posts, read 12,993,985 times
Reputation: 27076
That spiral staircase only goes up to the one loft room and it least it isn't one of those tiny, rickety, spiral staircases.

It would be easy to get furniture up there with a bucket truck to the second floor balcony.

It would not bother me in that house.

Otherwise I cannot stand them.

It wouldn't be hard to add an outside elevator. About $25,000 and at that price, you could throw it in as a condition for sale.
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Old 09-05-2018, 03:49 PM
 
Location: Raleigh
8,168 posts, read 8,454,098 times
Reputation: 10141
Many years ago as an EMT I was called to a house with a sick patient on the second floor of a home with a spiral staircase access to the second floor. It was Labor Day, IIR. We had to call out a fire truck with full crew to bring a ladder, rig the patient into a rescue basket, and lower him in the basket down to the first floor and out to the ambulance.
Not convenient.
Not a good way to get out of the house.
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Old 09-05-2018, 06:14 PM
 
Location: South Park, San Diego
6,109 posts, read 10,798,876 times
Reputation: 12470
Secondary staircase, to a small loft or secondary access to a balcony or deck ONLY!
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Old 09-05-2018, 10:58 PM
 
Location: Dessert
10,819 posts, read 7,184,193 times
Reputation: 27876
I believe it's illegal in California to have a spiral staircase as the only access to an upper floor. As the EMT noted above, it's a safety issue.

I love the look of a spiral, but prefer to actually use straight stairs.
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Old 09-06-2018, 06:39 AM
 
Location: Pikesville, MD
2,983 posts, read 3,046,733 times
Reputation: 4552
Quote:
Originally Posted by Crashj007 View Post
Many years ago as an EMT I was called to a house with a sick patient on the second floor of a home with a spiral staircase access to the second floor. It was Labor Day, IIR. We had to call out a fire truck with full crew to bring a ladder, rig the patient into a rescue basket, and lower him in the basket down to the first floor and out to the ambulance.
Not convenient.
Not a good way to get out of the house.

And if they had been a 400-500 pounder you wouldn't have been able to get them down a conventional staircase, either. My wife has a few stories where they had to open up an outside wall to get a patient out of a 5th floor apartment after being stuck between a toilet and bathtub... Unusual situations are part of the job, and there's always something that makes the job harder than it should be.
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Old 09-06-2018, 09:00 AM
 
Location: Grosse Ile Michigan
30,701 posts, read 79,330,237 times
Reputation: 39408
I always thought they were the epitome of coolness in a house, but the people we knew who had them tended to hate them. How could they not love the epitome of coolness?

Then I lived in a house that had one.
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Old 09-07-2018, 11:45 AM
 
2,129 posts, read 1,760,779 times
Reputation: 8758
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tiffer E38 View Post
And if they had been a 400-500 pounder you wouldn't have been able to get them down a conventional staircase, either. My wife has a few stories where they had to open up an outside wall to get a patient out of a 5th floor apartment after being stuck between a toilet and bathtub... Unusual situations are part of the job, and there's always something that makes the job harder than it should be.
Nuts to that.

Situation 1 is avoidable only by the person in question.

Situation 2 is a weird and unusual accident that you can't plan for. You do realize, however, that it would have been faster and easier to shut the water off and remove the toilet? It's held down only by 4 nuts and a wax seal around the flange.

Situation 3 is entirely avoidable by anyone with half a brain.

How 'bout we just dispense with a staircase altogether, eh? Hoist your prisoner up there with a ladder then wall up the opening. That's about as bright as putting in one of those small spiral staircases to "save space".
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