Stairway To Heaven
I suppose I could have come up with a slightly less cliched headline, but whatever… our stairs were installed yesterday and I’m pretty excited.
We went with white oak for the treads, which will eventually be stained a dark brown (at least that’s the game plan at the moment). My wife and I had contemplated walnut as we both love the woodgrain and colour, but the cost difference was far too great to really justify it. Walnut is also a softer hardwood (how’s that for an oxymoron?), which we weren’t particularly fond of either.
The railing was originally going to be metal and glass, but we feared the result would be too “cold” and unfriendly… so we went with wood and glass instead. The plan was to have zero spindles, but we couldn’t get a single piece of glass long enough. So we’ll have at least one spindle that’ll be used solely to hide the seam between glass panels. The glass itself will be inset into a grove that runs along the top of the stringer and the bottom of the railing… which should allow us to avoid any glass-mounting hardware. Nice and clean.
All in all, I’m quite happy with them so far – although it’s actually a little difficult to fully appreciate them as they’re currently protected with plastic and temporary wood treads. I suppose the only thing I wish we had done differently was open risers. That would have allowed for a nice clear line-of-sight through the middle of the house. The wife disagreed though, and I couldn’t exactly argue against the safety of our future children (which is really why we went and did all of this, right?) You can’t win them all I guess.
What’s the saying… happy wife, happy life? Wait, that’s a cliche too.
Post Tags: stairs, white oak, wood
Happy wife happy life for sure.
— posted on March 10, 2009Hi,
Your post over at MocoLoco had a photo of your tub. Can you tell me the tub make/model? Where did you shop for it (I’m in Toronto too).
(remodelling makes you ask dorky questions – but, building a house you probably sympathize)
Enjoying your posts. Would prefer a response in the comments here.
Thanks!
— posted on March 13, 2009Hi Jeremy,
I’m still enjoying your build. An alternative to having a single spindle is to go with two (or mulitple) sheets of glass like you mentioned, but instead of adding a spindle, just leave a gap between the glass panels. I have done this on a couple of houses and works quite well. The only other thing I would be concerned about with one single run of stairs is that railing constructed in this fashion can be a little wobbly (sp?)
— posted on March 22, 2009Hi Jeremy
Part of our staircase has just been installed and although my initial impression was good, I am now a bit disappointed after closer inspection. It is also made of wood but wedged in a right angle between two walls. The edges are not flush with the wall, stuff doesnt line up or fit… I’ll have to lay down the law again tomorrow. Oh well… We have a blog about our building project as well, although it’s nothing as professional as yours.
— posted on March 24, 2009I have a contemporary home and am currently doing some stairs and am wrestling with the wood vs stainless steel railing myself. I am using glass too instead of spindles. I am thinking I might go with a combination – stainless steel railing and posts with a black walnut cap. The cap is screwed in from the underside of the railing. I’ve also seen leather wrapped stainless steel railings to warm it up a bit.
I also considered open risers. Oddly enough, even though there are building code requirements for the space between spindles or the space between the glass and the stairs and the railing (100mm, or 4”) my (downtown Toronto, Canada) inspector told me the building code doesn’t even talk about open risers. I pointed out to him open risers are not good if you have a small baby that can crawl. He just shrugged.
In the end I did not go with open risers as the view wasn’t that great, but I do think you made a mistake not going with open risers. You’ll have a gate on the stairs for your kids anyway.
— posted on March 24, 2009I can’t find the pic of the tub, but I bought a very nice contemporary rectangular acrylic one, 42” X 72”, for about $750 at Taps in Toronto, Canada that is manufactured by Neptune in Quebec. No jets or stuff like that as if you ask around people go ooh and ah when they see them but then never use them and they are impossible to clean.
— posted on March 24, 2009Alan – We have 3 different tubs.. each was purchased from a different company. The en-suite is an Oceania, which was purchased from Roman Bath Center. We went with this particular model because of it’s odd shape – we needed a short but wide tub, and these guys were the only company we could find that made a modern-looking tub that would actually fit.
The shared bath is a Tubco, which is manufactured right here in Toronto. This thing is HUGE. Far bigger / deeper than I was expecting, but I think it looks great (although we’ll probably need a little step for a while so a child can actually get in and out).
The basement tub is a pretty standard (but modern looking) tub… but I can’t recall the manufacturer (I’ll have to dig it up for a future post). Regardless, it was purchased from Tubs and we chose it because it met our aesthetic needs at an el-cheap-o price.
— posted on March 24, 2009Regarding the stairs – I’m told we won’t need to worry about it being “wobbly” as the glass itself will act as structural member. It seems somewhat counterintuitive, but that’s what the stair-guy said. We had considered having NO spindles and going with the simple gap between the glass panels, but I’m not too sure I’ll like the aesthetic. I know it’ll be pretty subtle, but I think I’d rather go with a single white spindle to tie everything together (plus, it’ll help the structure… even if it’s not needed).
Ruan – lay the smack down… if you’re not happy with it, make sure your contractor knows it.
Scott – I agree. Open risers would have been the way to god… but that war wasn’t going to be won. Sigh.
— posted on March 24, 2009I guess you do have to worry about the WAF (wife acceptance factor).
— posted on March 25, 2009