Stair and Corridor Lighting Questions Checklist

Walk down the stairs with the present lighting on and note the steps whose front edge you cannot pick out clearly.

Descending is the direction that matters most, and it is the one people rarely test deliberately.

Note whether your own body casts a shadow onto the steps below you as you descend, and where the light is coming from when it does.

A single fitting above and behind the walker throws shadow onto exactly the steps being approached.

Record what the treads are finished in and whether tread and riser are the same colour, since that affects how the edge reads.

A carpeted stair in one colour hides its own edges in a way a contrasting finish does not.

Note whether the tread surface is polished or reflective, and observe what it throws back when light falls along the flight.

Reflections off a polished stair can obscure the very edge the light was meant to reveal.

Photograph the flight from the top and from the bottom in the lighting you have now, and keep both with your notes.

The two views are very different, and a professional can read more from them than from a description.

Whether any stair is adequately lit is a judgement for a suitably qualified professional, and what applies where you live must be confirmed locally.

Write down how you arrive at each stair and corridor — from which door, carrying what, and which hand is free.

The free hand and the approach direction decide where a control is genuinely useful.

Note where the existing switches sit and which of them you have to walk past a dark stretch to reach.

Walking through darkness to reach a light switch is the clearest sign the arrangement is wrong.

Record which routes you want to be able to control from both ends, and pass that as a request rather than as a method.

Stating the outcome leaves the arrangement to the electrician, which is where it belongs.

How lighting is grouped, switched or controlled from more than one position must be determined by a qualified electrician.

In a long corridor, note whether you would want control part way along as well as at each end, and mark where.

Corridors with doors off them are entered from the middle as often as from the ends.

If automatic or sensor control has been suggested, ask what happens when someone stands still, and note the reply.

Sensors that switch off around a stationary person are a well-known nuisance in circulation spaces.

Stand at the bottom and note how much of the flight is visible from there, and where the stair disappears from view.

The hidden section is the part people meet unprepared, and it is the part usually lit by spill from elsewhere.

Note any turn, half-landing or tapered step, and record how each is lit at the moment.

Turning steps are the hardest part of any stair to read and are often the furthest from the fitting.

Look particularly at the first and last steps of each flight and note how clearly they read when approached at a normal walking pace.

The transitions at each end of a flight are where people misjudge their footing most often.

Note which doors open onto a landing, and whether an opening door would cross a fitting or block light from it.

Landing doors are opened in the dark constantly, and their swing is rarely considered in the lighting layout.

Record how much of the current landing light comes from rooms with their doors open, and what happens when those doors are shut.

Borrowed light disappears the moment a household changes its habits, and the landing was relying on it.

List every hallway, corridor and inner landing that receives no daylight of its own, and note how long the lighting stays on there each day.

A space lit all day has different priorities from one lit only in the evening, and this is the first thing to state.

Note where a corridor borrows daylight through a glazed door, a fanlight or an open room, and what shuts that off.

Borrowed daylight is genuinely useful but disappears whenever the door is closed, which is most of the time.

Record the wall and floor finishes along each corridor, especially where they are dark, since they absorb much of the light.

Narrow spaces are dominated by their surfaces, and a dark corridor needs more light for the same effect.

Write down what actually happens in these spaces besides passing through, such as coats, storage, a meter cupboard or a place things are left.

Corridors do more work than owners credit, and each additional use suggests a position that will otherwise be missed.

Note whether anything is to be hung along the corridor walls, and record its position before any fitting position is fixed.

Corridor walls are where pictures end up, and lighting them is a decision that must precede the fittings.

Write down who moves about at night, where they go and whether they turn on a light or navigate in the dark.

Households that never switch on at night are telling you the existing setting is too bright to use.

Describe what still needs to be seen at a low night setting, naming the step edge, the turn and the door rather than a level of brightness.

Named objects can be designed for, while a request for dim light can be met in any number of unhelpful ways.

Note where light on the stair or landing would reach a bedroom door, and who sleeps behind it.

Waking someone else is the reason night lighting gets abandoned, and it should be raised as a design constraint.

Walk the night route yourself and note everything you have to avoid on the way, including furniture, a pet bed or a step you forget.

The obstacles are specific to your household and will not be visible on any drawing.

Note whether children or occasional visitors use these routes at night, since they do not know the house the way you do.

People unfamiliar with a stair need more from it, and the household rarely thinks to mention them.

Where anyone using the stairs has particular mobility, balance or sight needs, discuss the arrangement with a professional advising that person.

Stand at the bottom and look up, noting any fitting that is directly in view and uncomfortable to look towards.

Fittings above a landing are looked straight into by anyone climbing, which is not how they are chosen.

Come down the flight and note whether any fitting is in your eyeline as you descend, and where the light is falling.

Glare while descending is worse than glare while climbing, because it obscures the steps ahead.

Note where a stair window sits and what it reflects after dark, since it becomes a mirror facing the flight.

A bright fitting reflected in a stair window can be as distracting as the fitting itself.

Observe the shadows the balustrade or handrail throws across the treads under the present lighting.

Striped shadows across a flight make the edges harder to read, not easier, and are entirely a matter of fitting position.

Where a stair rises through a double-height space, note which fittings are seen from a level above as well as from below.

A fitting judged from beneath can be uncomfortably exposed when seen from a gallery or upper landing.

Before agreeing to any position over a stairwell, ask what reaching that fitting would involve later, and write the answer beside it on your sketch.

There is often no safe footing above a flight, which quietly rules out some otherwise attractive positions.

Reaching a fitting above a stairwell is work for a suitably qualified professional with the proper equipment, not for a household ladder.

Note who in the household would otherwise attempt it, and treat that as a reason to choose a position that does not require them to.

The realistic alternative to a reachable position is somebody standing somewhere they should not be.

Where a long hung fitting is being considered in a stairwell, ask what it would take to lower or service it later.

Some arrangements can be lowered and some cannot, and that difference should influence the choice.

Ask what wall-mounted or step-level alternatives would offer along the flight instead of a fitting hung in the void.

Alternatives at reachable heights often light the stair better and are far easier to live with.

Note whether a whole flight depends on one fitting, and ask what the stair would look like if that single fitting stopped working.

A flight left dark by one failure is a different problem from a room where the remaining fittings carry on.

Write down everyone who regularly uses these routes, including children, older relatives, visitors and anyone who stays overnight.

The list is what turns a personal preference into a brief that others can work from.

Note what gets carried up and down, from laundry to luggage, and whether a hand is usually free for a switch or a handrail.

Carrying changes both how the stair is used and how the lighting has to be controlled.

Note whether pets use the stairs, particularly where they lie on a landing or at the bottom of a flight in the dark.

A dark landing with a sleeping animal on it is a real hazard that owners recognise instantly once mentioned.

Record any change the household expects that would alter how these routes are used, without treating it as certain.

Circulation lighting is disruptive to alter later, so foreseeable changes are worth stating even if they are uncertain.

Note how these routes connect to the way people leave the property, and confirm locally what applies to lighting on that route.

Requirements around exit routes vary by place and property and are not something to settle from general reading.

Anything concerning lighting on an exit route must be confirmed with a suitably qualified professional and the relevant local authority.