Staircase as a small building in the structure, the volume is relatively small, the structure of the form is relatively simple.

However, nowadays, many public buildings, as well as home space, the staircase is often a focus of the design, can play a good role in embellishing the space, and sometimes, because the staircase is well designed, minutes into the net red card place. And more and more designers, but also gradually take the stairs as a space ornament to design, in order to meet the basic function of its safety, give full play to their imagination.

Staircase lighting design is definitely a key point to express its safety and aesthetics. Therefore, when designing staircase lighting, the relationship between the staircase itself and its surrounding space, i.e. the “inside and outside” of the staircase, should be fully considered.

The interior refers to the structure and construction of the staircase itself, the choice of materials, the treatment of stair treads and balustrade handrails; the exterior refers to the characteristics of the space around it. Only when the two are considered in a unified way can they be perfectly combined.

Classification of stairs 

Staircase as a building between the floors connected to the components, by the continuous steps of the ladder section, platform and enclosure, etc., can be divided into two categories of ordinary stairs and special stairs.

Ordinary stairs include: reinforced concrete stairs, steel stairs and wooden stairs, etc., of which reinforced concrete stairs have more advantages in terms of structural rigidity, fire resistance, cost, construction, modeling, etc., and are most commonly used.

Specialty stairs include: safety ladder, fire ladder and escalator 3 kinds.

In addition, according to space classification, it can be divided into indoor stairs and outdoor stairs.

Indoor stairs: solid wood stairs, steel stairs, steel and glass, reinforced concrete or a variety of mixed materials. Among them, solid wood staircase is the most widely used staircase in high-grade housing, steel and glass mixed structure staircase in modern office areas, office buildings, shopping malls, exhibition halls and other places, reinforced concrete staircase is widely used in a variety of duplex buildings.

Outdoor stairs: because of the consideration of wind and rain and other natural factors, the general appearance of the beautiful solid wood stairs, steel stairs, metal stairs, etc. are not very suitable, reinforced concrete stairs, a variety of stone stairs are the most common.

What about stair lighting?

1. Installation of light strips on stair treads

Many families that most of them are in this situation in the picture below when they are not yet finished with the renovation.

In this case where the solid wall and the staircase are concrete, it is recommended that you can install some light strips at the stair treads, and these light strips, which can be shone downward or inward.

However, the prerequisite is: to add a stone or wooden slab on top of the concrete, so that the stair treads will have an extended structure, which constitutes the condition for the installation of light strips.

Notes:

If the step is paved with a very bright stone or tile, the lamp should not shine down. If you shine downward, the ground stone is easy to form a mirror reflection, resulting in reflections. Therefore, the light should be shone inward.

Don’t have too much space for the pedals to stick out. Many people in order to make the lighting effect looks better, say stretch 5cm, 8cm out, too long, it is easy to trip. But sticking out too little doesn’t work either, the light can only come out a little bit, very restricted.
(P.S. Prevent tripping over the toes, staircase section nose from the distance of the kicker blocking board control in 20mm or less, some special circumstances, such as the tread is too narrow, the principle of increasing the section of the nose should also try to control in 30mm)

2. Staircase additions

In the first method, the light strips are installed inline in conditions with stone or wooden panels, while in the second, by means of external inserts (tread lights).

Through the staircase plus device, which is the tread light above, each comes with its own anti-slip strip, and although it is an external device, it is actually a light, so be careful not to choose a wattage that is too large, as there are strips of light on each step. 

In addition to the lighting design that can be done on the stair treads, we also have the option of treating the handrails.

For example, make the entire handrail appear lit, or install light strips underneath the handrail.

Or, drill holes under the handrail and embed the lights in the holes. The picture below is a more standard practice seen in Australia.

We also have the option of installing two light strips on either side of the staircase, or hiding glowing things on the side of the staircase.

For example, you can open a slot on the side of the stairs, and then embed a whole aluminum profile into it, which ensures that there is a place to put the light strip inside. And this practice is both anti-glare, lighting effect and good, a whole strip also just have a point of outlet.

There is another way, is to install footlights. If you install footlights, you can do so by opening holes in the wall, and the lamps and lanterns can be selected as recessed footlights with a relatively small thickness, or you can choose to use surface-mounted footlights.

Notes:

Don’t install the footlights too short, if too short, the light range is small.

Where it is easy to be covered by people, you need to think about the installation position of the footlights.

Where to put the driver?

If the lamp is low voltage, to connect 220V high voltage, there should be a driver, then, where to put the driver?

Generally speaking, like the corner of the stairs will have a hidden place, this kind of indoor place driver can be placed in the corner hidden place.

But many times, there is no such hiding place in the floor. At this time, we can choose to put the driver on the ceiling and the low voltage wire down.
Some people may question: low voltage driver output if the line is too long, connected to the light strip will not have a voltage drop? To be honest, it’s only about 3 meters, and the power of the footlights is not big, so it won’t have much impact.