On Jan 16, 8:06*am, The Daring Dufas the-daring-du...@stinky-
finger.net wrote:
This comes up because of a tragic accident with some folks I know. The
elderly grandmother, 88 was at home with her granddaughter, the
granddaughter's three young children and the granddaughter's boyfriend.
The boyfriend had just spoken to grandma then went into the room with
his gal when they heard an awful sound. Grandma had fallen down the
basement stairs to the concrete floor below. The boyfriend ran down to
check on grandma but she was fatally injured. What happened was the
door to the basement stairs opened into the stairwell and the latch was
defective and failed to hold when grandma was walking down the hallway
holding onto the walls to steady herself. When she put her weight
against the door, it sprang open and she fell through it and down the
stairs. It seems to me that most basement doors I've seen open out and
not into the stairwell. I don't know if there is a home-building code
regarding this or not but anyone building a house should consider the
safety of a door which opens into a stairwell. O_o

TDD

I'm sure older homes are grandfathered in, but I found this:

http://inspectapedia.com/Stairs/Stair_Landings.htm

"International Building Code 2000 (BOCA, ICBO, SBCCI)
1003.3.3.4 Stairway landings. There shall be a floor or landing at the
top and bottom of each stairway."

then:

"An interior door at the top of a flight of stairs need not have a
landing at the top of the stairs, provided the door swings away from
the stairs."

It doesn't say it, but that exception might also apply to stairways
with no door. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have a friend that
had a house built less than 3 years ago. The stairs to his basement
are accessed via an opening off of a hallway. The opening has no
door. There's 4 steps down and then a landing, but none at the top.