Closed staircase - "without risers"

[Gallianoman]

We are considering building a cleaning cupboard under our loft stairs in the summer cottage. The idea is to keep it simple for us... Today, it's an open staircase - and we need to close it... The plan was simply to put a painted plywood from floor to top edge. That is, instead of fitting risers on each step...

Now after checking online, we can't find any pictures of someone solving it that way... doesn't it work that easily? - or will it just turn out to be extremely ugly?

 

[BirgitS]

Do you mean just placing plywood from where the stairs connect to the loft floor straight down to the ground? Then the staircase is still open and you can see into the cleaning closet when walking on the stairs.

 

[Immobil]

We are considering building a cleaning closet under our loft stairs in the summer cabin. The idea is to make it quite simple for us... Today it's an open staircase - and we need to close it.... The plan was simply to put painted plywood from floor to top edge. That is, instead of putting risers on each step...

Now after looking online, we can't find any pictures of anyone who has solved it this way... does it not work that simply? - or will it just be extremely ugly?

I assume you’re placing it to follow the stringers up. Then you'll get a dirt trap that will annoy you for the rest of your life. Go for risers instead, then you'll be satisfied and happy, despite the extra work.

 

[Anna_H]

Setting risers can be done quite easily. The neighbor simply took leftover boards from the newly laid laminate floor and screwed them to the back of each step, so that it went up to the next. Neat and smooth. It just requires having boards that are wider than the height of the steps and longer than the width of the stairs.

 

[ullet]

Everything depends on how important the finish is. This is how the "temporary" stairs to the loft in our garage look, set up just like you're thinking with an OSB board (except everything is unpainted).


I don't really find it to be a bigger dirt trap than a regular staircase, gravel and the like can get between the board and the actual step. It's fine for a garage but maybe not something I would want in a "nicer" space.