Building regulations: replacing old unsafe stairs

[Carm10]

Hi! following on from my previous thread, the stairs in my house (1930s semi) are too narrow and have a headspace of 190 cm at one point. The best the joiner could do is to put a 3 step winder in the current landing. However, he said something that 2 of the winder steps where 800mm instead of 900mm so we might not get building control approval.

The thing is... does anyone knows if they would give us bc approval if the new staircase is LESS dangerous than the previous one?
Is there any way that they could agree to this before replacing the staircase? I don’t want to see myself having to pay for the old staircase back if the inspector on the day doesn’t agree with the changes.

Thank you in advance for your replies, I think I made a mistake buying this property, i mean in 10 years time or when I come to sell, most people are going to bang their heads on my stairs and their feet won’t fit on them (19cm going).
Building controls should have safety into account, and accommodate as we are not as small as 90 years ago.

PS: I’m going to ring my council and check with them, but I want to be prepared as I have been told they can be busy & not very helpful

Bump as I posted on halloween 👻

I don't know about approvals so can't entirely help. But another alternative that may be suitable depending on your layout could be an alternating tread staircase such as www.stairsuk.co.uk/alternating-tread-staircase.html

My mother put one in to replace a steep cottage staircase and it is surprisingly straightforward to walk up and down. If you think it is something to consider I'd recommend finding a showroom to try them out first.

There is no width restriction for building regs. 800 mm is considered ok. I still would consider a half landing rather than winders. So start a few steps straight then turn through 90 degrees. Winders are more difficult to navigate.

On your building regs issue, as long as the result is not worse in terms of compliance you will be ok as that's allowed.
You would be strongly advised to do a full plans application before hand explaining exactly what you intend, they will check and sign off, and then you can go ahead.
As long as what you do matches the approved plans then you are in the clear.

We had a deed of easement on the staircase on a previous house. Our fault really as we put in a spiral staircase and then tiled the downstairs floor. This made the bottom step a shorter rise than the rest. The building inspector was a really good guy and said that, as technically, the staircase did not comply - it needed to come out and be replaced. He then told us about the deed of easement. If memory serves we had to apply to the Home Office (this is 40+ years ago) for an exception to be made from planning regulations for our stairs. Had to supply measurements, drawings and photos. Eventually received the paperwork granting the deed of easement signed by Michael Heseltine no less!

@BubblesBuddy sorry by narrow I meant to at the going is 19cm. Headspace is so restricted that unfortunately it has to be 3 winder steps, and the joiner is scratching his head as the wonders will be too tight. Space is quite limited, so no space to do another turn and adding the 3 cm in every step is proving nearly impossible

@johnd2 wow that’s just what I wanted to hear. I wasn’t sure if we could do this but that would be a solution. I will tell our joiner.

@rslsys very interesting, I think nowadays they would just say “computer days no!” (With my luck anyway...)