Are having stairs in your home good for your health?

[burritos]

Assuming you don't fall down them(which I have without injury thank goodness). From time to time I will hear about how as you get older people seek single story homes to be able to get around. But doesn't having stairs and using them regularly help keep you out of that debilitative bandwidth?

[Hatton]

I had a house with stairs most of my life. I now have bonus space only upstairs. I think the reason people want a one story house is knee and hip problems that come from aging.

[CordMcNally]

I'm mid 30s and my motivation to get up off the couch and go upstairs couldn't be lower most nights. I'm actually not sure if having a first floor master would change that much, though.

[Anne]

My parents are in their mid 70s, no sig medical issues, and have only a half bath on their first floor. Laundry is in the death trap aka basement and all bedrooms and showers are on the second floor. My mom is adamant about not leaving. I think they would be active with or without the stairs though, they are just active people.

[StarTrekDoc]

Missed last two steps one night two years ago while letting the dog out. Grade 3 sprain and still talks to me every morning.

That prompted a move to first floor primary bedroom.

Made about 500k with that decision....though have a larger mortgage now and even more house . But it's a nice house

[FIREshrink]

My friend custom built a 3 story home worth ca $600k then, $800k now. I told him to put in a $30k elevator and he scoffed. Since then he's had abdominal surgery and spent several weeks sleeping in the garage level study rather than his master bedroom, and a nother week after an ankle sprain.

We live in a single story ranch. I prefer to get my steps on the trails and sleep in my own bed at night.

[childay]

Everyone has a plan until they fall and get a hip fracture?

[burritos]

Intentionally try to sprint up the stairs whenever possible. Though have slipped and in the back of my mind worry about giving myself a lisfranc. My daughter is growing out of this, but from time to time my 12 y/o will let me carry her up. Figure it's good resistance. If my kids haven't done any exercise, I make them go up and down in 20 times.

[TheDangerZone]

Not if you slip and fall down an entire flight of them like I did on Monday morning. Bruised my tailbone pretty good. Had a busy OR day lined up too, might be the first and only time I wished I didn't have to sit to operate.

[jhwkr542]

I don't see how you could possibly climb your stairs at home enough to justify it being exercise. Unless you're dedicating 30 mins to just going up and down them...

[Tim]

I don't see how you could possibly climb your stairs at home enough to justify it being exercise. Unless you're dedicating 30 mins to just going up and down them...

Stairs in a home don’t count as exercise. Period.
Simply an obstacle, with hazards. No debate.
Beats the heck out of climbing a ladder if you have two stories.
MIL just got diagnosed with a torn labrum. I KNOW what caused it. My bad. The recliner we got her had a lever to push/pull for the leg support. Dang, got to get her an electric one. Geez, we got her one but it’s in “her house”.
Probably tore it getting up for her twice daily walks around the first floor. The real deal is joints age, hurt and balance declines.
Hip fractures happen without stairs. She managed that too. All on the first floor.

[Kamban]

My former home had all bedrooms upstairs. Did very well for 10+ years but slowly worsening arthritic pain made it difficult for my in-laws to go up and down. It came to a point where they came down in the mornings and stayed downstairs till night rather than go up in the afternoon for a nap.

That was enough for me to construct a house with bedrooms for them and us downstairs and another one for our daughter too. Only the guest bedrooms are upstairs. And we put in a small elevator which was only $24K while building it ( and impossible to put in later). The elevator comes in useful to transport our suitcases after a travel to our upstairs attic and also help people with arthritis to go upstairs to the media room.

I love it as it combines the best of both worlds. Never found this option in any prebuilt house.

[AR]

I love it as it combines the best of both worlds. Never found this option in any prebuilt house.

Some family friends bought a house with an elevator in anticipation of needing it when they got old. It was a massive house, though. Completely impractical for older people with no kids at home. When they actually got old, they realized that while the elevator was nice, it was way too much house and so they moved to a house without an elevator.

My own inlaws installed one of those chair lifts attached to the stairs. It's fairly unobtrusive and gets the job done just fine. Also my kids loved to ride that thing when visiting. It was like an amusement park ride for them when they were little.

[burritos]

My 98 y/o grandmother climbed my parents stairs up until one month before she died of pneumonia/old age. I don't think she ever exercised once in her life.

[pierre]

I think it’s sad that we accept the shortening of our health span as normal aging.