Basement Subfloor at Bottom Stair Landing

basementbasement-refinishingstairs

I am in the process of finishing my basement, but I ran into an issue with the new height of the floor and the bottom of the stairs. My new basement flooring is raised ~2" (OSB nailed on top 2x2s which are attached to the cement floor via tapcons).

I have yet to do directly in front of the stairs because I am fearing I will be breaking code. I have been searching around and have seen that there may not be more than a 3/8ths variance between stair heights, which my subfloor would obviously break, but was not clear if the landing is considered within this restriction.

If it does break code, do I need to modify my steps to accommodate the new floor height? I'm not terribly concerned with finishing the area directly in front of the stairs, but then that also leaves the issue of a gap between the cement and the new floor (tripping hazard?).

Any advice is appriciated.

Best Answer

New landing at height of last step

  • Build the new basement floor across the full room.
  • Add a new landing - really just another floor that is at the height of the existing bottom step. Depending on how you finish it, you may add a thin (max. 3/8" ideally, as already noted) layer on top of both the stair and the new floor to make it function and appear as one smooth surface. This landing should be at least 3 feet deep, though that includes the stair that becomes part of it.

That leaves you with one short step at the end of the landing down to the new basement floor.

basement stairs landing

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