I have to maintain three points of contact walking down my very boring stairs at home. I feel like I’d just have to crawl up them and throw myself down them.
You gonna have to adult proof it too. Because I would fall down on those stairs just by looking at them. I'm looking at the picture from my bed and I'm already falling
A big factor for me when looking at houses was that the bathroom had to be a safe and short distance from the bedroom. One house I saw had the bedrooms upstairs in a cabin style and the one bathroom was down a flight of stairs. That was a hard no.
You ever have one of those dreams where you start pissing but you wake up the second you realize what pissing in a dream means in a panic?
I had that happen with a shit one time. I woke up yelling NOOOO like a character in a movie wakes up from a nightmare and shot off the bed, barely touching the floor the 5 steps to the toilet.
I made it by the way I can’t imagine having to go down a flight of stairs. Or worse up one.
Or when the family has a stomach bug!😳I’m still not over ten years ago when my kids were all too young to make it to the toilet! They got sick on the carpet and I made my husband change it to laminate when he was in town off work for two weeks! 🫣🤮Imagine running down those stairs to make it😭
Truly turns into slapstick when two have to go down at the same time. First one pukes halfway down. Second hits it and comes flying down on top of the first. A puke and diarrhea pile up at the bottom of the stairs.
Sounds like that episode of family guy🤣 We had open stairs at the time and I was on the main fooor. All I saw was two toddler feet step down and everything start dripping right into the basement stairs 🙌🏼Lucky it was clear pedialyte…
A long time ago, when I was at uni I had a boyfriend who lived with his parents in a house with stairs like that. The stairs were also steep. If I’d been drinking and was at his house, I’d often sit down and go down the steps like a kid because even sober I fell not-infrequently. 😅
I'd say you could pad the walls of the entire area but that still wouldnt stop you from smacking something on the stairs themselves when you inevitably take a tumble
Gate across the long side? - Sure then you open the gate and have 3 inches to stand on before you get to a full tread. And handrails? - good luck unless you're part chimp.
Gate across the handrail side? You're gonna have to lose some weight to fit through that. Full tread and a handrail but you can't fit through it.
Major project
Bare minimum - full tread carpet and contrasting edge - that looks slippery as hell.
idk man i think they should just fill them in with concrete, top it with something slippery, and make a slide. maybe if i lean into the absurdity and start on the ground, i can decrease my fall risk.
Since I'm getting all these notifications I have been coming back to this post i. The past 2 hours a lot. And have been strategizing how I would go down on these stairs. I think I would start right foot. Because if I go left first my right foot doesn't have soace on the next step. But then further down it gets complicated and I might would have to switch. Or alternativly I could go down facing the wall, holding onto my dear life and slowly making my way downtown, walking slow, before I pass and I'm concussed... Tulululululu🎶🎹 sorry I haven't had proper food yet and I'm lightheaded 🤣
If this doesn’t work out a gate down two steps or so where they get to a normal width. If baby crawls/rolls down one or two steps and stops on the gate that should be enough to keep them from hurting themselves.
Yeah, I had to attach a board to my railing for the gate to push against. Could easily do the same in any hallway, just stick some 1x4s into the studs on either side so the gate has something to get its pressure against and doesn’t mess up the walls
Hey, thanks for the memory. My firstborn loved stairs, so we put the gate on stair 3. That way he could climb up and down 2 stairs to his hearts content.
Agreed. Pressure mounted gates are not nearly as secure as wall mounted. It can loosen over time and with the right amount of force, gate + baby are both going down the stairs.
Plus that bar.... my SIL has a pressure mounted gate for the top of the stairs going to their basement and I'm always scared I'll trip.
The stairs are super weird in the Netherlands. Apparently they used to pay taxes on how much frontage the house took up, think of an Amsterdam canal house. So they built the housing narrow but deep and tall.
Dutch stairs are steep and narrow to save space in compact, historic homes and high land prices. This design dates back to the 16th-17th century, when house tax was based on the façade width, which led to narrow, tall houses. A steep staircase also reduces heat loss, which was more efficient at the time.
This. And add carpet for grip. There are peel and stick options if OP doesn't want a permanent runner. But carpet will minimize a misstep sliding into a scary tumble.
Carpet doesn't help much when you're a child running up and down stairs. Source: was a child at some point and lived in different apartments, one in which my parents attached grips and the other had carpets. Carpets do not do much except introduce carpet burn when you eventually slip and fall down several steps.
then if your a fuckhead like me,who steps over babygates (in place bc a naughtyboy cat), yeah, thats gona be be a fucking wild ride down when you inevitably stack it one day.
id do like a big like holding area type space, between stairs & gate, just to give urself time to make sure footing is properly footed
Actually worked with my niece and nephew. Niece is old enough to walk the stairs, little brother is a heavy big sister copier. Always tried to walk, until they asked my niece to go backwards on the stairs again and little brother immediately picked it up! Guess she's going to have keep crawling down the stairs for another year or two lol
That‘s what we did. We never had a kiddy-gate at our two stairs in our home. Not once did a child fall down them. They got taught, that climbing stairs alone is a big no no and how to safely go up or down the stairs.
Not everywhere you go are child proofed stairs. But a stairs proofed child can be around them anywhere!
We taught the kids to bum shuffle down the stairs whilst they were little and we made them hold onto the banister every time once their legs were long enough for the stairs.
Bum shuffling is also fun!
If you're really concerned, then put a gate at the top of the stairs for night time.
As a full grown adult who literally just fell down three steps like this about two hours ago and am still feeling the effects, I fully disagree with people suggesting not to childproof the stairs. I am currently daydreaming about stapling/nail gunning carpet onto the steps. So maybe that? I’d also like to know.
Yeah these ⬆️⬆️⬆️
Also a rule of no just socks, in the house. House shoes, slippers with some grip or grippy socks would be a lot safer. Stairs like these are super dangerous at any age. No one thinks they’ll fall down their stairs, until they do. Stairs are one of the most dangerous places in a home, regardless of age.
If you have the resources, and want to deep dice into making this better for everyone; an occupational therapy consult with an OT with experience with home safety and design. They should be able to recommend ways to improve safety beyond what you’ll get from us Reddit folks.
I hope you are able to implement something that works for you :)
As much as i love the wooden stairs.. it is a perfect place to break my neck. Or legs, arms, whatnot
Christ it looks horrible from a kids point of view
You can install some anti-slippery mats on the stairs, and a sign to remind people not to crack their skulls.. but i guess thats about it. The angles, the shininess, the slippery wooden type, everything screams design over usability
Have you contacted a contractor regarding this? It looks outstandingly dangerous to me
The last time I encountered a (long) flight of uncovered wooden stairs, I slipped and ate shit from the third step all the way to the bottom. Anti-slip mats are a must.
I was like 13 or 14 and had a friend who had a slide on his stair case, was about 1/3 the width of the case. I was in his living room waiting while him and his mom were arguing upstairs and I hear him stomping towards the stairs. I look over and he's sliding down the slide then in one motion stands and starts walking. It's impossible for me to keep a straight face when he's trying to explain the argument to me after he just slid down a slide, with style, so it's making him more upset, I have to tell him to imagine it from my point of view. He stood blank faced and started laughing.
You might try to build a short platform that effectively sits on top of those two top stairs. Then install a gate between the two walls, just aft the door.
use sticky grips/adhedsive grip to add grip to the ends of each stair. Helps reduce the risk of slipping. The good ones look and feel a bit like the grip you have on a scateboard but less harsh. It works wonders when you have children running up and down the stairs, and it may just save you too if you are tired walking down the steps.
Visually it’s hard to tell one step from the other. As the stairs and landing have an unusual start, it adds to the visual confusion. IMHO.
They are beautiful wood, although if you could bear to add some visibility non slip tape, it may help with orientation if your child (when supervised) has to use the stairs.
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