Safety Exit


© Chris Arnold

If you have a basement you may have taken notice that if you have a fire you do not have a really easy exit. You may be one of the lucky ones who has a couple of doors available to you, but probably not.

You could buy one of those ladders, but they don't exactly look stylish. If you want to make an escape route that fits in with your decor you will probably need to make your own. But fear not, it's not that difficult.

What I am recommending is a variation of a bookcase. In essence you are going to build a set of stairs into the side of a bookcase. The great thing is that this thing is strong enough to hold a full-sized adult.

You will need to vary the design depending on how far off the ground the bottom of you window is from your floor.

Basically you are building a bookcase in which each level is not quite as long as the one below it.

What you can do is build the lowest level that is on the floor at a 5 foot length. The next level would be then 4 feet long and the next would be 3 feet. Have one side matchup giving you a solid vertical line and then you will have a 12 inch deep step on the other side.

I used 2X12s for my project which gave me a 12X12" step when it was all said and done. I used the same type of wood for my vertical pieces and made sure that the horizontal pieces rested on the verticals. This of course gave the bookcase an outrageous amount of strength.

I used 1/4" plywood for the backing and used deckscrews to attach the horizontals to the verticals. In the areas where it was a little difficult to do this I used "L" brackets to secure the verticals to the base horizontals.

This was probably overkill but I will never have to worry about the thing falling apart on someone. You can anchor the case to the wall through the plywood or use "L" brackets for that as well.

Good luck, and stay safe.

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