Tuesday 9 August 2016

Renovation project - How to build a stair case: Part 1

Renovation project - How to build a stair case: Part 1

The stairs in the house cannot be bought off the shelf as the height of the room is not big enough.
These are what the stairs look like now. They are not much more than a ladder and I hate the idea of walking up them.
old French staircase

We look at all types of stairs and none will work, John could buy some and cut and adapt them but there is no guarantee the angle will be right.
We have no choice but to make our own stairs.
We found a much bigger builders merchants, and called into check on the price of wood to build the stairs, we cannot find what we need for the risers and I have no choice but to attempt to discuss it with a member of staff. I feel really pleased with myself as I have a full discussion on wood and prices and delivery in French. We go to look at the wood in the yard and he shows us different types, John cannot believe that you can buy a 3 metre piece of mahogany with the right dimensions and planed for only 60 Euros.
We need to work out the measurements and how many treads he will need to make, but we think we may have found our new staircase. Our problem now is the newel posts and spindles, to buy these in mahogany would send the cost spiraling out of control. We could make the spindles from pine but that would not look good with the mahogany and if we stain or paint it all, well just try asking John his opinion on painting real wood!
It is back to the drawing board a little bit, but I am sure we will come up with a solution at some point (and at some point soon as we want to get the house finished)

7 comments:

  1. Have you thought of a solid mahogany post and then using thick natural rope to hold onto. We had a very steep staircase/ladder at one house. I used to come down backwards. In time I could do it quite quickly.Enjoying following your adventures in renovation. Have done one here in France but now live in a all mod cons modern German house built for us 7 years ago. Helen in France

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    1. Thanks for the tip Helen we have decided to completely rebuild and hand make a new stair case. I bet your new house is so very different to the one you renovated. I have never lived in a new build but sometimes I do think it would be quite nice ;)

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  2. Would a kit spiral staircase work? Or a metal fabricated staircase with woiden treads.

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    1. that was what we had planned on in the beginning, but because of the size of the room, it won't work. But always a solution to every problem :)

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  3. hi,I used some old beams out of the floor I renewed. you need a straightish one obviously but cleaned up it looks great. I also built the two flights of stairs out of English scaffoldboards on an mdf platform built like shelves instead of doing all that routing too.this makes a very original looking staircase of which I am quite proud as I'm a retired fireman not a carpenter.

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    1. it sounds great, it is amazing what you can build out of old materials, especially beams and floorboards :)

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  4. I built a two flight staircase using reclaimed scaffolding boards and old beams from my renovated floors for newel posts.I built the steps like selves so I didn't need to rout the treads to the stringers.a platform of MDF and then scaffordboard on top for strength and the finish. not sure you can put pictures on here but it looks original in an old house.oh I'm a retired fireman not a carpenter so most handy men can do it if I have!!

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