Eli5 why aren’t 2 story houses built with ramps instead of stairs?

Question

Are they just not practical? They seems cheaper to build instead of elevators for wheelchair bound people.

In: 0

Answer 1

Stairs can be a lot steeper and still be usable, To go up 10 feet, stairs would have a footprint of about 40 square feet, while a ramp would have a footprint of about 400 square feet, but it’s even worse when you consider that much of it will require floor space on both the upper and lower level. In many cases that would be more than half the usable area of the house just dedicated to the ramp. Might as well pretend the second floor doesn’t exist.

Much more practical to have stairs and a wheelchair lift.