How to get it right: Door swings

^{Article updated on 31 January 2024}

One of our surveyors recently sent in this photo, taken in a brand new commercial building. 

It’s the ground floor of a protected staircase and shows the door swing directly over the bottom of the stair within the landing space. 

Clear space should be provided at the top and bottom of flights of stairs measuring at least the width of the stair and this can be reduced to 400mm at the bottom of stairs within dwellings.

This is to protect those on the staircase as there's a danger of being hit by the door swinging into them when they’re nearing the bottom of the steps or an injury caused by a fall.

The 400mm allowance for dwellings is because there is usually only one person on the stair so they could stop to steady themselves to ‘dodge’ the door swinging at them.

In buildings other than dwellings, and particularly within a protected stair, a door opening across the bottom of the stair will form a bottleneck for those escaping, and the potential to cause serious injury.

While the area around the door in the image above needed a replastering job and redecoration, the door and frame could be reversed to open away from the stairs and into the lobby instead, because the number of people moving from that area was less than 60.

Further information

Find out more and download Approved Document K.

Read more 'How to get it right' articles

Please Note: Every care was taken to ensure the information was correct at the time of publication. Any written guidance provided does not replace the user’s professional judgement. It is the responsibility of the dutyholder or person carrying out the work to ensure compliance with relevant building regulations or applicable technical standards.