Spiral Staircase - stupid idea?

[plantsitter]

I am pregnant and for various reasons our current flat is not suitable for a baby/ toddler. We're renting and I've seen a fab looking little house but it has a small iron spiral staircase from the ground to first floor. I reckon this is so dangerous for a tiddler that it's not even worth going to look at the flat, but DP says it would be no more dangerous than normal stairs. What do you think?

I'm also a bit worried that the staircase is so narrow my arse won't fit up it, but I suppose that's a different matter.

Bad feng shui too, apparently

Sorry, not much help.

i wouldnt rule it out

you can make things safe with gates etc

I knew someone who had nightmares with a spiral and moved because of it. She had trouble getting up it whilst pg and then carrying the baby was terrifying and the toddler couldn't cope with it. I'd think twice personally.

I've always loved spiral staircases but they aren't the most practical. However, saying that a lot of older terraced houses for example have narrow/shallow/steep stairs that can be equally as impractical.

You also have to consider how you would get large items of furniture upstairs (beds, wardrobes, chests of drawers etc) -I think most people end up taking out a first floor window and hoisting stuff in that way.

Would put me off. Little 'uns always seem to struggle with the different ratios of tread:riser between the centre and the edge.

worth looking at at least - it'll be a year before you need to worry about gates etc so you have time to find a solution.

Agree with Betty. We lived in an old cottage with a wooden spiral staircase. We had to cut our bed in half to get it upstairs and much o our furniture would not go up the stairwell. It's OK if you don't mind flat packed stuff. The stairs weren't too difficult to negotiate for us, but DS2 (who was 9 months when we moved in,and 22 months when we moved out, struggled initially because the steps were not a uniform size.

Depends on the layout really - we once viewed a place with a spiral staircase to a mezzanine level. We could have used the mezzanine for an office/spare bedroom so it was worth considering...

Ooh hadn't even considered getting the furniture up it!

Think I will go and look anyway to torture myself (have always wanted a spiral staircase) but probably be resigned to not taking it. Especially if it's bad feng shui on top of the danger/furniture/arse issues!

Thanks for replies.

Not a good idea. We lived in Amsterdam when ds2 was born in a house which had a very steep, turning stairs - almost spiral stairs. It was a nightmare carrying him up and down once he became heavier and by the time we moved two years later, I had a semi-permanent back ache and it took a lot of expensive chiropractor appointments to get it sorted out. You spend all your time holding the baby on one side and kind of swinging yourself around the middle of the stairs to step up. We also never managed to fit a stair gaqte on the bottom which was another trauma with ds1 who was two when we moved in.

NO!

When I lived with ex boyfriend we had one in our loft and it sucked, I can only imagine what it would be like with kids.

Interesting.

Only last week I was wondering about this very thing.

Our old house had a spiral staircase which I loved, but was too dangerous for the children. So we replaced it with a wooden staircase which was U shaped and took up no more space than the spiral. Sold the spiral staircase on ebay and the new staircase cost about £1000. So if you love the house you should go for it.

why, turniphead?

elaborate

I started a thread about this a few months ago here
We didn't go for it in the end (not because of the staircase though)

Thanks Sputnik - wonder if it's the same flat still on the market because of the spiral staircase?!

Probably not Plantsitter, I'm in Italy!

I love them, but DH and I have just decided not put one in our loft conversion. DCs are now four and six, but we still think it's a bit dodgy - plus the idea of moving furniture up and down an spiral staircase isn't appealing.

I'd have hated it when the DCs were little - I used to have to carry DD and hold DS's hand just so I could go upstairs to the loo (they both started screaming if I left the room for, ooh, two minutes). Our stairs curl round as it is; goodness knows how I'd have coped if it had been a more complex arrangement!!

My Mum has one and it was a nightmare with small children. Even with stairgates top and bottom my youngest brother managed to fall through the top gap on his ride on toy - nary a bruise though, babies bounce I think. Mum also 'caught' another brother falling on at least 2 occasions - he had a tendancy to sleep wander (and she slept with her ears open!).

And it is a nightmare for dust - everything underneath it gets covered in a layer of dust, no matter how often you clean.