A split landing is one landing with two different levels.
The picture below provides you with an excellent example of a split
landing stairway. The difference between the two landings is usually the
same distance used for the stair risers.
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Split landings can reduce the length of a stairway by
one step. You're probably thinking, big deal, what's one step, but when
you're dealing with tight spaces, it might be the only way to build that
particular stairway.
A few years ago I was working on a small home that had some big problems
with the stairs. The architect had an incorrect measurement, for the
length of the stairs and it wasn't going to meet the city building code
requirements, if we built it, according to the building blueprints..
An instant solution to the problem was to change the flat landing to a
split landing, even though the owner of the property wasn't going to run
it through the Building Department again. Any changes you make to a
building, need to be approved by the proper authorities, including the
Building and Safety Department.
I can't tell you how many times I added a step to a landing to solve
problems with poorly designed stairs and buildings.
There are a few problems that I would like to warn you about though,
with these types of landings. There are plenty of people who have poor
vision, suffer from color blindness and often trip or stumble, because
they actually can't see the change in elevation.
Even though they look neat, if I was going to design a stairway I
wouldn't use a split landing, unless it was absolutely necessary, for
that reason alone. I even stumbled over them myself, while building
homes.
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