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This document describes and includes photographs of stairs provided for pets such as dogs & cats inside or outside of buildings.

Old or disabled dogs, cats, and even birds, snakes, rabbits and gerbils are sometimes treated by their owners to a personal step or stair to ease their passage in or out of bed or in and out of a building. Here we provide some examples of creative building access provided for pets, including a remarkable second story catwalk that was actually constructed for cats.te

© Copyright 2009 Daniel Friedman, All Rights Reserved. Information Accuracy & Bias Pledge is at below-left. Use links at the left of each page to navigate this document or to view other topics at this website. Green links show where you are in our document or website.

Pet Steps, Ramps, & Doggie Stairs in Buildings

Tips for Choosing a Pet Stair or Ramp

• Pet stair height: Choose the proper sized stair or ramp to reach the height of the bed, sofa, or vehicle so that your pet stair does not leave a high jump at the top.
• Pet stair railings: if your pet stair is more than 30" high we recommend choosing a model with railings, especially if your pet is elderly or arthritic and has trouble negotiating stairs. The railings should be enclosed with vertical balusters about 4" apart for safety. Our elderly golden retriever fell through widely-spaced balusters on a circular stairway.
• Pet stair width: Choose a pet stair that is wide enough that the pet does not fall off to one side when climbing down. A pet ramp or stair that is the right height for your couch may not fit the height of a bed or other furniture.
• Pet stair construction: Choose a pet stair or ramp that is firm enough in construction to support the weight of your pet. An elderly overweight rotweiler might have a hard time climbing the soft foam block stairs shown in our photo above. Foam block construction is fine for smaller, lightweight pets. Compare your pet's weight with the recommended weight limits of the model stair you're going to purchase. Wooden or plastic pet steps are available which will doubtless carry more weight than the foam block type of pet steps.
• Pet stair tread safety: carpeting on foam or wooden pet stairs can help prevent a pet from slipping off of the steps. Plastic pet stairs often use a non-slip granulated tread covering for the same purpose.
• Pet ramp or stair stability: Choose a pet stair or ramp that will not slide or slip on the floor when the pet is climbing up or down
• Proper placement of a pet stair: Place the pet ramp or stair where the human occupants of the building won't trip over it, especially when getting up in the night in a dark room.
• Pet stair cleaning: a removable, washable cover, if you actually remove and clean it, may reduce the level of dust mites and allergens in the room where the stair is used. It's still more important (for asthmatics and people with allergies) to regularly clean the areas where the pet spends a lot of time. Plastic or wooden pet stairs, with their hard surfaces, can simply be damp-wiped clean.
• Pet ramps for vehicle access: should have a secure or "sticky" pad or hook at the uphill end of the ramp to assure that the ramp won't slide off of the vehicle or other high surface while the ramp is in use by your pet. Dog Ramp.com sells a telescoping dog ramp.
• Pet steps for vehicle access: at least one company (Pup Up®) sells a folding stair (canvas steps and risers) to assist pets in and out of vehicles, and probably quite suitable as a traveling pet stair for other uses.
• Pet steps for swimming pool access: a poolside-attached pet access stair is available from PoolPup to provide a safety exit stair for pets who might fall into a swimming pool.

A Real Catwalk for Cats

Below our photographs show a catwalk that was actually built for cats. Our client occupied the second floor of a home converted from an antique barn to living space. She needed to let her cats have regular access to outdoors without bothering the downstairs tenant with whom she shared a common entry door.

As we describe in detail at Railings on Stairways, a good handrail is important at every stairway.

But what about railings on pet stairs and catwalks? It may be that cats, even elderly cats, rarely fall off of a stair nor off of a narrow catwalk.

However, as our photos show just above, the owner borrowed a design detail from ramps commonly used for chickens and other poultry: she nailed cleats along the cat walk at regular intervals to give better purchase to the cat feet which traversed this high catwalk from a building window to an outdoor fire stair.

This catwalk design is not suitable for human use, even in an emergency, which raised a question about indoor access to the second story fire-stair.

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Use links just below or at the left of each page to navigate this document or to view other topics at this website. Green links show where you are in our document or website.

STAIRS, RAILINGS, LANDINGS, RAMPS
  Attic stairs
  Balusters & Railing Enclosures
  Basement Stairs & Walkout Covers
  Books on Stair Construction
  Checklist for Stair Inspections
  Circular & Curved Stairs
  Codes for Stairs
  Exterior stairs
  Fire Stopping for Stairways
  Guardrails on Balconies & Landings
  Lighting over Stairs
  Pet Stairs
  Railings on Stairways
  Ramps, access
  Stair dimensions: width height &c
  Stairway headroom
  Stairway landings
  Step riser dimensions
  Step stringer defects
  Step tread dimensions
  Stair tread nose dimensions
  Winder stairs

• Thanks to Alan Carson and Bob Dunlop, Carson Dunlop, Associates, Toronto, for permission to use illustrations from their publication, The Illustrated Home which illustrates construction details and building components. Carson Dunlop provides home inspection education, publications, report writing materials, and home inspection services. Alan Carson is a past president of ASHI, the American Society of Home Inspectors.

Books & Articles on Building & Environmental Inspection, Testing, Diagnosis, & Repair

• Our recommended books about building design, inspection, and repair, and about indoor environment testing, diagnosis, and cleanup are at the InspectAPedia Bookstore.
• "The Elimination of Unsafe Guardrails, a Progress Report," Elliott O. Stephenson, Building Standards, March-April 1993
• "Are Functional Handrails Within Our Grasp" Jake Pauls, Building Standards, January-February 1991
• Slips, Trips, Missteps and Their Consequences, Second Edition, Gary M. Bakken, H. Harvey Cohen,A. S. Hyde, Jon R. Abele, ISBN-13: 978-1-933264-01-1 or ISBN 10: 1-933264-01-2, available from the publisher, Lawyers ^ Judges Publishing Company,Inc., www.lawyersandjudges.com sales@lawyersandjudges.com and also from the InspectAPedia Bookstore (Amazon.com)
• The Stairway Manufacturers' Association, (877) 500-5759, provides a pictorial guide to the stair and railing portion of the International Residential Code.
• The following stair books and other books on stair history, design, and architecture can be purchased at our Amazon-Supported InspectAPedia Bookstore
• Steps and Stairways, Cleo Baldon & Ib Melchior, Rizzoli, 1989.
• The Staircase: History and Theories, John Templar, MIT Press 1995
• The Staircase (two volumes), John Templar, Cambridge: the MIT Press, 1992.
• "The Dimensions of Stairs", J. M. Fitch et al., Scientific American, October 1974.
• ...

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