Internal Stairwells

Internal stairwells are the vertical escape routes and everyday stairs of a building: fire-isolated stairs enclosed in fire-rated construction, open stairs between floors, and feature stairs in lobbies and atria. Functionally a stair must be safe to use every day (even risers, slip-resistant nosings, handrails, good light), and, if it is an escape stair, must stay clear, protected from fire and smoke, lit when the power fails, and lead people out to safety. Fire-isolated stairs are the most important life-safety space in a multi-storey building and the one most often misused for storage, smoking and shortcuts.

What shortens fitness for purpose:

• Use as storage, smoking areas or shortcuts, with doors propped open.
• Worn nosings that become slippery and hard to see.
• Security measures that lock stair doors without proper release.
• Penetrations by services through stair walls.

Stair condition is less a matter of age than of how the stair is used.

Falls

Falls on stairs are among the most common serious injuries in buildings. Worn or slippery nosings, edges that cannot be seen, uneven risers, missing handrails, poor lighting and wet treads from leaks all contribute. Older stairs often have handrails on one side only and nosings without contrast.

Fire doors propped or failing

Stair doors are propped for convenience, ventilation or deliveries, and closers and latches fail. A propped stair door lets smoke into the escape route for every floor above and defeats stair pressurisation.

Storage and obstruction

Furniture, boxes, bicycles and rubbish stored in stairs, especially under the lowest flight, narrow the route and add fire load inside the protected enclosure.

Locking and re-entry

Security often locks stair doors from the stair side to stop people moving between floors. Rules in each jurisdiction allow this only under conditions such as release on fire alarm or re-entry floors, so that people in a smoke-filled stair can leave it. Locks fitted without those conditions can trap people.

Loss of fire separation

Service penetrations, unrated access panels and glazing replaced with ordinary glass compromise the stair enclosure.

Smoke control failure

Pressurisation that has failed or is unbalanced either lets smoke in or makes doors too hard to open; see the smoke management page.

Blocked discharge

Stairs that discharge into car parks, loading docks or locked yards, or whose final exit doors are blocked or chained, fail at the last step.

On site, flight by flight

• Doors propped, wedged or held by hooks; closers and latches not working.
• Storage, bikes or rubbish in stairs and under flights.
• Worn, polished or loose nosings; no contrast strips.
• Handrails missing, loose or on one side only.
• Dark landings; emergency lights failed.
• Floor level signs missing.
• Locked stair doors with no indication of release.
• Final exits blocked or locked.

In the records

• Fire door inspection records.
• Annual fire safety certification.
• Fall incidents on stairs.
• Smoke control test records.
• Security locking arrangements and fire alarm interfaces.

• Cigarette butts and furniture on landings, a sign the stair is used as a break area.

Findings are graded by what they demand: safety (can hurt someone now), failure (failed and damaging the building), condition (distress present and progressing), lifecycle (renewal due on age and exposure), deadline (a regulator or ordinance sets the date), check (investigate before sizing works) and nil (cosmetic or stable).

Most stair findings are cheap to fix, so there is rarely a reason to defer them.

A building surveyor with a fire safety consultant; a security consultant where stairs are locked.

• Flight-by-flight inspection of every stair: doors, closers and latches, storage, treads and nosings, handrails, lighting, signage, enclosure penetrations and discharge.
• Riser and going measurement where falls occur or stairs look irregular.
• Slip resistance testing of nosings and landings.
• Locking and re-entry test: security doors released by the fire alarm and on power failure.
• Smoke control and emergency lighting tests.
• Use review: why doors are propped and stairs used for storage.

The report should list life-safety items by stair and floor, and stair improvements.

Stairs are best inspected at different times of day, because propped doors and storage often appear outside business hours.

Night and weekend checks are often revealing.

• Door repair: closers, latches and seals restored so every stair door closes and latches from fully open; hold-open devices linked to the fire alarm where stairs are genuinely used for circulation between floors.
• Clear storage from every stair and enforce building rules, with regular checks recorded.
• Nosings: slip-resistant nosings with contrasting edges on every tread and landing edge, so each step can be seen and gripped.
• Handrails on both sides where required, continuous through landings, at the right height and graspable.
• Lighting: even lighting on every flight with emergency lighting tested to the standard, and occupancy-dimmed lighting that never leaves a flight dark.
• Locking: bring security locking into line with release-on-alarm and re-entry rules, with signage on the stair side.
• Fire stopping of service penetrations and replacement of any unrated panels or glazing in the enclosure.
• Final exits kept clear and openable without keys, with signage outside to stop obstruction.

Stair works are priced per flight or per stair. Nosings and handrails are priced by length; door works per door; lighting per fitting; locking changes per door with fire alarm interface. Most items are code compliance and low in cost relative to their safety value; the main cost driver is doing the work without closing escape routes, which usually means one stair at a time and out-of-hours work.

Keeping stairs clear costs only management time.

• Australia. The National Construction Code sets stair geometry, handrails, fire-isolated stairs and door requirements, with fire doors maintained under AS 1851; slip resistance follows AS 4586; strata and building rules prohibit storage in stairs.
• United Kingdom. Approved Document B governs escape stairs and Approved Document K stair geometry and guarding; the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 require checks of fire doors in residential buildings; the responsible person must keep escape routes clear.
• United States. NFPA 101 and the International Building Code govern exit stairs, including re-entry rules for locked stair doors; NFPA 80 covers stair door inspection; OSHA requires exit routes kept clear.

Insurers and fire services in all three countries treat obstructed or compromised escape stairs as serious breaches and can require immediate action or issue orders.

• Fire door inspection records for every stair door.
• Annual fire safety certification and any qualifications on stairs.
• Stair fall incident records.
• Security locking and fire alarm interface test records.
• Smoke control and emergency lighting test records.
• Building rules on stair use and storage, with records of enforcement.