Staircases

A staircase is arithmetic before it is joinery. The total floor to floor height divided into equal risers, the going of each tread, and the headroom above them decide what is possible in the space you have. Change one and the others move. That is why a stair cannot simply be made steeper to fit a smaller opening: the regulations set limits on riser height, on the going, and on the headroom over the flight, and a stair that ignores them is both unpleasant to use and a problem when the house is sold. The shape follows from the space. A straight flight is the cheapest and the easiest to fit, and it needs the most floor. A quarter turn with a landing eats less. Winders, the wedge shaped treads around a corner, save the most room and cost the most to make, and they are worth it where a straight flight would swallow a room. In an attic conversion the stair usually has to sit over the existing flight, and the headroom at the top is the number that decides whether the whole project works. Materials change the feel more than the price. A painted stair with an MDF string and oak treads looks sharp and costs far less than solid oak throughout. The balustrade is where the money goes: turned spindles are the cheap and traditional answer, square timber is cleaner, steel and glass cost more and open the hall up. Glass has to be the right specification and properly clamped, and that is a supplier question we handle rather than a builders merchant question. If the stair is being replaced in a lived in house, the flight comes out and the new one goes in the same day wherever we can, so nobody is stranded upstairs overnight. Where the opening has to be changed, we frame and trim it first and give you a temporary way up.

Can you just replace the balustrade?

Often yes, and it is the cheapest way to change how a hall looks. The strings and treads stay, the spindles and handrail come off, and new posts, rail and infill go on. It works where the stair itself is sound and the geometry is legal. If the treads are worn or the flight is loose, replacing the balustrade only draws attention to the rest.