I have a finished stairwell leading to my unfinished basement with a landing 2/3 of the way down then a 90 degree left turn. The left turn ends at the door leading to the basement. From what I can tell this left turn is not load bearing (is placed between the 2 I beams running through the basement and all joists over that turn go from I beam to I beam, ie no cuts). I would like to take this turn out and just have the stairwell go straight into the basement (I had to cut a hole in the wall on the landing to get large objects down there), my initial measurements tells me its physically doable. My wonder is why do they put a 90 turn in the stairwell, is there a code that specifies a basement stairwell has to have one (fire code maybe)? If I eliminate this turn it opens up the area where it exists (obviously) which makes this idea appealing. Any thoughts/suggestions/advice would be appreciated. Tony

Has anyone ever had any experience turning an attic into a master bedroom? Any helpful advice would be greatly appreciated.