The hallway monster lives in your dark and scary windowless halls! You never really know what is living in your dark halls!
Your Dark Hallway & Stairs Are The Scariest Places In Your Home
Hallways and stairs are usually either surrounded by rooms or recessed away from windows, making them potentially dark and dangerous. How many times have you seen kids leave toys or sports equipment next to their doors or those toys spilled into the hall? Have you worried about your visiting elderly parent or relative navigating down the stairs at night? Can you see in your hallway at night when the doors are closed?
Safety and Trip Hazards Hide In The Dark
Trip and fall hazards are much more catastrophic in the dark because you have no warning or time to prepare. A surprise is a surprise. A surprise in the dark is worse because your natural fears seize you to make things worse. Can you think of any friends who have slipped in the dark, where they have thrown out a hand to catch themselves and shattered a wrist while still striking their face and head? Those falls are worse with hallways ending in stairs because of the obvious tumble down after!
Ask Any Teen In a Horror Movie!
Dark hallways are so common that even in pop culture they are permanent fixtures in dangerous encounters.
Catastrophic Falls Can Happen On Dark Stairs & In Dark Hallways
Because we are visual when planning our steps, wandering down dark hallways and stairs can be slightly nerve-wracking. There is probably not some contrived villain working on a jump-scare in your hallway. But even mindless horror movies understand our fear of the dark and why it can be dangerous.
Hallways – Dangerously Dark By Design
Flanked by Rooms – No Windows Available
Horror movie jokes aside, all homes in the United States are required to have two exits from every habitable room. That means that by building code every room needs two ways to exit in case of a disaster like a fire. If the door is blocked by fire, for example, the building code’s intent is to protect you from harm by requiring your window to be a second means of escape.
Because your home’s rooms need access to one another and must comply with the building code’s two exit requirements, it is common sense that no matter how smooth your design, chances are you will need at least some passage between rooms. Not all homes have long spaces we can waste forming inefficient space. Most homes, builders, and homeowners prefer compact elegant designs that don’t waste materials, driving the costs of your home up.
The next step in this functional design means that there is a high likelihood that your windows will be on the opposite wall from the door you use to exit into your hallway.
That is why your hallways are dark.
Too Far for Conventional Skylights
One option that everyone has heard of before is the old traditional skylight.
There are several problems with old conventional skylights brightening your dark hallways. First, your hallway will probably have six to twelve feet of attic space above most of its run because of how roofs slope above your bedrooms. That means that traditional skylights will require a framed box from your roof all the way down into your hall. Second, because of the distance from the roof to the hallway, you will lose so much light in the sheetrock that the time, expense, and effort will produce very poor results.
This is an extremely frustrating situation where you are trapped, literally in the dark. The best solution is to pipe daylighting down the tube of your highly reflective tubular skylight to deliver perfect lighting.
Super Dark When Power Is Out
This dark, miserable situation is magnified when the power is out. The Houston area sees frequent hurricanes and heavy weather events. The power is usually pretty good but hurricanes are not normal! How long was your power out in Hurricane Harvey or Ike or Alicia?
You can set yourself up for a much better and more comfortable disaster survival scenario simply by adding natural light to your hallway. Even at night, some strong moonlight could help but most of the time it is shut out behind exterior walls, rooms, interior walls, and your closed doors.
The Kitchen Has More Accidents But Hallway Stairs Can Have The Worst Injuries
Kitchen Has More Dangerous Tools
Your kitchen has some of the most dangerous tools in your home. You keep knives, sharp implements, appliances that become extremely hot, mechanical devices with blades, and an assortment of other devices that can cause harm. Dents, dings, bangs, burns, and cuts happen thousands of times a year in kitchens.
The Bathrooms Hide Slip Hazards
Bathrooms also are extremely dangerous, especially for the elderly and those already ill or nauseous. Because bathrooms are typically tiled to protect from splashed water, water can pool resulting in some nasty slips and falls. Someone with severe flu, nausea, or dizziness may slip and bang their head in their degraded state. Slips and falls in bathrooms happen fast and stop on a hard floor, resulting in sprains and ugly bone breaks.
Hallways and Stairs are Trip & Fall Hazards
Hallways that lead to stairs are the worst. The dark hallway, similar to your bathroom can hide slip and trip hazards, especially at night. The results of those falls can be pretty much the same as in your bathroom. You, your children, and your parents risk breaks and sprains stumbling forward and careening off the walls before smashing into the floor.
The combination of the trip hazards hidden in your hallway and an unlit second-floor stair landing is that your family members’ tumble might not just stop at the floor! When you fail to light a hallway above your stairs that fall can go down another eight to twelve feet to the first floor.
Falling down the stairs, especially for elderly family members and children, is extremely dangerous! The multiple devastating impacts down the stairs and rolling can cause massive bodily harm and even death.
Don’t risk it!
You can protect your family and beautify your home at the same time with minimal investment and as little as two hours of your time!
Two Bright Hallway Solutions
Natural Light w Tubular Skylights
The highest quality light that you can bring into your home comes from Solatube tubular skylights. Tubular skylights are mirrored tubes that literally pipe the sunlight from your roof, through your attic, and display almost all that light in your hallway. UV light is screened out at the light collection dome and never even enters your Solatube daylighting system. The IR heat radiates out within the first few bounces so no heat is added to your home either. They provide massive amounts of lighting making your halls bright, cheerful, and safe. Solatube tubular skylights are extremely high-tech and leak-proof skylights but require a perfectly clear line from your desired light delivery area to the roof. Because you are building a solid metal tube for your light, you can be limited by the positioning of your home’s structural members or mechanicals. A free estimate can quickly and easily determine the best solution for your home with no obligation.
Solar Powered Lighting
Solar powered lighting systems from RediLight USA use highly efficient solar panels to first capture sunlight, convert it to highly efficient low voltage amounts, and then use solar-powered LED lighting to brighten your hall with either crisp 5000k or warm 3000k lighting. The RediLight solar-powered lights offer modular and extremely flexible solutions that can pass right under your most difficult and mechanically complicated attic spaces. Because they use low voltage wires, they install quickly and can install almost anywhere in your home, but are particularly useful in those hard-to-reach places like under your hot water heater or AC systems.
Here are the results from League City after installing solar-powered lighting! You can even install it in your bedroom!
Amazing and Permanent Results in as Little as Two Hours
Your Hallways Don’t Need To Be Wasted Wall Space Anymore
Once you have decided to brighten and beautify your hallways with 100% pure clean natural daylighting or environmentally friendly solar-powered lights, you will notice an amazing difference! Suddenly, your hallways can become beautiful galleries for your pictures, awards, or keepsakes. With either tubular skylights or solar-powered lights transforming your hallway and stairs, you are only limited by your own creativity.
Here are some more images in the Gallery in other rooms to illustrate the massive changes.