On Thu, 17 Jan 2013 07:59:30 -0800 (PST), DerbyDad03
wrote:


When we were house hunting, my first stop was usually the basement
since you can learn so, so much about a house from down there.

In many cases, I could tell if the house stood a chance with my wife
just by going down the basement stairs. If they were too steep (like
before current codes) I knew my wife would balk. Her fear of heights
is so strong that steep steps are a real issue.

There were some houses where I would go down the steep stairs and then
turn around to what it would take to "un-steep" them in case we liked
everything else about the house.
According to the 2005 Canadian building code, section 9.8.6.2 there
must be a landing between the door opening and top of the stairaw when
the door opens over the stairway. Lots of other interesting stuff
about stairways and building code at:
http://www.allwoodstairs.com/BC001.pdf