Step Stool in Solid Beech

A single step at 200mm with an anti slip top, which is the cheapest useful thing in this shop.

The safety numbers on this page are the ones that actually matter and they are worth reading once. Slat spacing is under 60mm, because a gap between 60 and 75mm is the size that traps a limb. A mattress must fit with under 30mm of gap all round. Anything a child sleeps above 600mm off the floor needs a guard rail and is not suitable under six years old, which is a regulation and not our opinion. And any tall piece of furniture in a child's room needs restraining to the wall, every time, which is two screws and the single highest value two minutes in the whole assembly.

Specification

• Dimensions: see the product name for the size
• Age range: 18 months to 8 years
• Material: solid steamed beech, which is the timber most school furniture has been made from for a century because it dents rather than splinters
• Finish: water based lacquer or paint, certified to BS EN 71 part 3
• Load rating: 80kg static, tested to 150kg
• Standards: BS EN 12520 and BS EN 12521 for domestic furniture, finish to BS EN 71 part 3, and the tip test in BS 4875
• Edges and fixings: every exposed edge rounded to a 3mm radius, every fixing recessed and capped, and no pinch point anywhere a hand goes
• Assembly: assembled, or about 20 minutes
• Weight: approximately 3.6 kilograms
• Anti slip top surface
• Freestanding, no fixing needed
• Felt pads fitted with spares
• Rounded edges throughout
• Adult supervision under 3 years

In the box

• The piece, assembled or flat packed
• Felt pads and spares
• A hex key where it needs one
• A printed safety card

Assembly and safety

Flat packed with a hex key and printed instructions. Fittings are threaded steel inserts rather than screws into board, so it can be taken apart and rebuilt as the child moves rooms, which most of them will do twice. Every fixing is recessed and capped, and the caps are supplied in a small bag with spares, because one of them will be prised off and posted somewhere.

How long it lasts

Most families buy this for one stage and then move on, and that is fine. It holds its value better than almost anything else in a child's room because it is solid timber with no printed decoration to date it, and we run a buy back on our own pieces at up to 40 per cent, refinish them and sell them as second life stock, which is the honest version of a sustainability page.