I don't know about your house, but the basement stairs in our home are directly under the stairs going upstairs and take advantage of the space underneath them to allow for headspace to walk downstairs.

We moved ours as part of a bigger project. It was expensive but wasn’t actually that disruptive - they were rebuilt within a few days. It was worth it to improve the kitchen floor plan. But yes code stuff applies. Our architect handled it.

We moved our basement stairs (interior) during a kitchen remodel. The stairs used to be in the kitchen and we moved them to a where a closet used to be in another room. Since we were converting a closet, we already had the doorway and ceiling space. I don't remember the cost because it was part of the overall remodel a long time ago.

We moved the basement stairs and it was $$$. We had to have an architect and engineer draw up plans and calculate the load. We had to cut through one of the steel beams in the house to turn the stairs. We had to then have all these extra footers dug into the basement floor to support the load since we cut the beam.

Still worth it to us. Almost every single person comments on how useable our basement is. Many have the same builder and style of house as they're neighbors. Previously we would have had the stairs turned to go to the back of the basement and then you'd have to have a hallway and walk to the front (where the doors are and the family room area is). Now our stairs just open into our basement great room. We have a long rectangle room, with no weird hallways.

We had a 100k basement remodel, but dh's family owns a construction company and did it for 1/3 that. We did a lot of the work ourselves, but none of that was the beam cutting/architect/new footer work.

Anonymous wrote:Op here— thanks for the replies! I have a butler’s pantry area that could be switched to a door to the basement stairs but I’m having a hard time picturing the angle of the stairs and how steep it would need to be. These stairs would also run into the main heating/ air conditioning unit for the house so that’s not ideal either!

Code requirements:
Max. Stair riser height is 7 3/4”
Min. Stair tread depth is 10”
Min. Head Height above stair nosing is 6’-8”

Anonymous wrote:Op here— thanks for the replies! I have a butler’s pantry area that could be switched to a door to the basement stairs but I’m having a hard time picturing the angle of the stairs and how steep it would need to be. These stairs would also run into the main heating/ air conditioning unit for the house so that’s not ideal either!

Oh, so that doesn’t sound as complicated as fully moving the stairs. You’re just rerouting them, kind of?

I think you’d really have to get a contractor to look and measure, and a lot might depend on what you’re willing to live with as far as closing off the original top and the finish level on the stairs.