Joiners, am i being ripped off?

[MBcarpentry]

I agree with a lot of what has been said already, I install a lot of oak staircases for a bespoke staircase company and the extra cost of materials, maufacture costs and finishing will soon add up. We generally use a French polisher to do the lacquering/staining may be worth looking into how they will be finished as there's a lot more work involved to finish them properly as apposed to sticking a coat of varnish on the treads.

 

[lurker]

He is not in finland and maybe never was.

Can we concentrate on helping the op rather than getting sidetracked

 

[Dan j]

You can get a quick quote online from pear stairs. That may give you an idea of price differences.
I found a price i did for someone a couple of years ago and it was about £1000 more for all oak instead of pine. There were lots of handrails/spindles with that though.

Sounds a bit on the pricey side to me, but may be likely as some have said they have had to go custom made instead of off the shelf for an oak staircase. In which case the 2k is quite possible for the price difference.

Dan

 

[europa]

Thanks, everyone. Really helpful comments. Builders came back advising against laminate clad stairs. That seems to tie in with what most of you are saying. Thing is, i have two cats. Cats love carpet and hard wood flooring, neither of which love cats haha.

Anyway, i can't justify 2k+vat for just the loft staircase. I've got one landing and downstairs staircase to do as well! At this point I'm inclined to just do pine/ply. And install a runner.

If i go with the runner, would you guys recommend trying to stain the pine a dark colour to attempt to match oak laminate floor, or just paint white? Rest would be white satin I think.

 

[skipdiver]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BASICS-Oak-St ... 1757045631

You could do it with one of these type kits if you really want an oak finish. Otherwise i would just paint it all white and have a runner. Staining pine never looks good to me and if they are buying the stairs off the shelf, it's possible the treads or risers could be MDF?

 

[HOJ]

I fitted a loft stair from http://www.twotwenty.co.uk/ a while ago, softwood stingers but MDF treads cost me £300.00

I would suggest that the only real expense is the upgrade to "Oak" but most stair makers will use American White Oak which isn't going to be that expenses to do, in my view, your in London so you will inevitably pay a premium, but that does seem rather a high price to me.

 

[europa]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BASICS-Oak-Stair-Cladding-Kit-Flooring-For-Stairs-Stair-Klad-13-Tread-Kit-/331757045631

You could do it with one of these type kits if you really want an oak finish. Otherwise i would just paint it all white and have a runner. Staining pine never looks good to me and if they are buying the stairs off the shelf, it's possible the treads or risers could be MDF?

Thanks for that link.
The treads will be pine and risers ply. I could be wrong, but i don't think it's off the shelf as they indicated that their standard staircase is about 1600£ fitted.

 

[Sgian Dubh]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BASICS-Oak-Stair-Cladding-Kit-Flooring-For-Stairs-Stair-Klad-13-Tread-Kit-/331757045631

You could do it with one of these type kits if you really want an oak finish.

I'm curious about the use of such kits you and others have mentioned. Installing one on a pre-existing stair likely has a negative effect on the rise, i.e., an extra high first step and a reduced rise from the top step to the landing, which makes me think installation of such a kit is building in a potential trip hazard. I'm reminded of castles and the like where the reason sometimes given by guides for variations in the rise of stairs or steps was to deliberately make them awkward for those climbing them with swords, daggers, etc and murderous intent. I'm not sure if this sometimes cited reason is true, or just hooey to explain poor craftsmanship and bad arithmetic, ha, ha.

Or have I misinterpreted the use and the effect of these cladding kits? Slainte.

 

[skipdiver]

It only affects the top and bottom tread, the rest stay the same, albeit with less stringer visible. I removed the top tread of the stairs when i did one of these kits, so the new tread lined up with the floorboards on the landing. Suppose you could remove the bottom tread too if you are bothered by the slight height difference.

I was told by a guide in a castle that spiral staircases were built in the same direction to give an advantage to right handed swordsmen coming down or retreating backwards up the stairs. They could swing their swords freely, whilst the attackers, if right handed, were restricted by the wall. It's the reason why left handed swordsmen were highly valued when attacking.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Brilliant! My bit of useless info for the day. :lol:

 

[tomatwark]

The castle where I had my wedding reception had a spiral staircase going the other way as the family who owned it when it was built were mostly left handed.

 

[europa]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BASICS-Oak-Stair-Cladding-Kit-Flooring-For-Stairs-Stair-Klad-13-Tread-Kit-/331757045631

You could do it with one of these type kits if you really want an oak finish. Otherwise i would just paint it all white and have a runner. Staining pine never looks good to me and if they are buying the stairs off the shelf, it's possible the treads or risers could be MDF?

Thanks for that link.
The treads will be pine and risers ply. I could be wrong, but i don't think it's off the shelf as they indicated that their standard staircase is about 1600£ fitted.

I found the following pine stair refurb, and i really like it (although i would go for brown rather than black, personally). This guy used a porch and floor paint, but I guess the same effect could be achieved with a dark stain, no?

http://yourhomeonlybetter.com/painting- ... -and-tips/

 

[rafezetter]

I found the following pine stair refurb, and i really like it (although i would go for brown rather than black, personally). This guy used a porch and floor paint, but I guess the same effect could be achieved with a dark stain, no?

http://yourhomeonlybetter.com/painting- ... -and-tips/

If you are considering this option - I would top off the paint on the treads AND risers with several coats of a good floor varnish, proper trade grade floor varnish as opposed to normal furniture DIY stuff. Otherwise after a few years of wear it'll start to look grubby and you'll have the unenviable job of stripping the lot off and re-doing it, but coated with layers of floor varnish, you can just cut a couple of those back with a sander and recoat with no-one the wiser It's also easier to clean with no risk of damaging the colour.

A stain will allow some of the wood effect to show through, not much depending on how dark you go, but some and it has a bit more "life" than a dead plain colour. It depends on what you like I suppose.

You could even do as I have and heavily tint a varnish so it's 80% opaque, thus not requiring application of a stain - one less complication if you are not used to it, but still giving that very dark effect and controllable by more or less coats.

 

[europa]

I found the following pine stair refurb, and i really like it (although i would go for brown rather than black, personally). This guy used a porch and floor paint, but I guess the same effect could be achieved with a dark stain, no?

http://yourhomeonlybetter.com/painting- ... -and-tips/

If you are considering this option - I would top off the paint on the treads AND risers with several coats of a good floor varnish, proper trade grade floor varnish as opposed to normal furniture DIY stuff. Otherwise after a few years of wear it'll start to look grubby and you'll have the unenviable job of stripping the lot off and re-doing it, but coated with layers of floor varnish, you can just cut a couple of those back with a sander and recoat with no-one the wiser It's also easier to clean with no risk of damaging the colour.

A stain will allow some of the wood effect to show through, not much depending on how dark you go, but some and it has a bit more "life" than a dead plain colour. It depends on what you like I suppose.

You could even do as I have and heavily tint a varnish so it's 80% opaque, thus not requiring application of a stain - one less complication if you are not used to it, but still giving that very dark effect and controllable by more or less coats.

Thanks very much - really helpful advice !