Norwegian legislation has requirements concerning luminance contrast for different elements in staircases. This paper investigates how architects work to meet the requirements, how to measure the actual built luminance contrasts and finally 21 staircases are measured using two different methods. The results show that some architects do not reflect on luminance contrasts at all, some use their “experience” and some try to measure the reflectance value of different materials during planning. The investigations also reveal that there is not any official predefined way to control luminance contrast, and this investigation shows that different approaches will give different results. To perform the measuring of the built staircases, it has been necessary to develop a defined measuring method. The results of the measuring generally shows that only a few of the staircases studied fully meet the legislation requirements.