Stairs trip up more floor plans than any other element. Drawn wrong they read as a random ladder of lines; drawn right they tell a builder the run, the direction and where the flight is cut between storeys. This guide explains the standard way to show stairs on a floor plan, the main stair types and their symbols, and how RoomPlot draws each one with real geometry so your plan reads like a professional drawing.
How stairs are drawn on a plan
A staircase on a plan is a top-down view, so every step shows as a line - the tread edges - inside the run. Three conventions make it readable:
- Treads as parallel lines across the width of the flight, evenly spaced.
- A direction arrow along the centre, labelled UP or DN to say which way the flight travels from that floor.
- A break line - a diagonal or zig-zag - where a long flight is cut so the plan can show what sits under the upper steps.
Get those three right and the stair is unambiguous. The same flight appears on two storeys: marked UP on the lower floor and DN on the floor it climbs to.
The main stair types
Not every stair is a simple straight flight. The common shapes you will draw are a straight run, a quarter-landing (a flight that turns 90 degrees at a landing) and a spiral. Each has its own footprint and its own symbol:
Tip. Always add the UP or DN arrow, even on a short flight. It is the one mark that tells a reader which way the stair goes without cross-referencing another sheet - and it is exactly what a building-control officer looks for first.
Draw them in RoomPlot
Open the object library and switch to the Stairs category. RoomPlot ships four stair types - Straight, Quarter Landing, Double Winder and Spiral - and each is drawn as true vector geometry for its type, so the treads and the turn are correct rather than a generic box. Resize the flight to your measured run and width, rotate it to face the right way, and drop a Stairs Up or Stairs Down marker from the Real Estate set to label the direction. If the flight sits under a slope, add a Reduced Headroom symbol so the plan shows where the ceiling closes in over the steps.
Stairs across floors
Stairs are the one element that ties storeys together, so they need to line up between floors. In RoomPlot, add a floor for each storey in the same project and place the flight in the same position on each, marked UP on the lower floor and DN on the upper. It is the quickest check that the stairwell is continuous and that nothing below it clashes.
Export the plan
When the stairs read cleanly, export a PNG or single-page PDF, or a branded multi-page report with an automatic symbol legend that lists every symbol used - stairs included. Want the wider vocabulary of plan symbols? See our guide to floor plan symbols, or browse the full set of RoomPlot guides. Open RoomPlot, drop in a stair, add the direction arrow, and your plan will read the way a professional drawing should.
