Make Every Step Count

The staircase is a very important design element of your home. While a staircase primary function is to allow passage between floors, its relationship to a home goes far beyond the practical sense, especially if it becomes a dramatic sculptural focus.

When building a staircase, functionality is the most important consideration. Extreme accuracy must be used for a safe design. Stairs must satisfy strict building codes meant to ensure safety and climbing comfort. We are accustomed to uniform, professionally built staircases, that the slightest discrepancy between steps creates a tripping hazard. Tall steps make climbing hard and shallow steps are uncomfortable and dangerous. Since there’s so little room for error, building stairs requires careful layout, strategic thinking and tricky calculations.

A finish carpenter builds a staircase the same way a chess player plays the game.

Chess strategy evaluates positions, sets goals and long-term plans for future play. There is also an intuitive part to “seeing ahead.”  A player must visualize the outcome of every move in their minds. Staircase building follows a similar strategy. Many calculations are involved and being able to foresee the next steps are critical in the building process.

Building a staircase may very well be one of the most challenging tasks for a finish carpenter, yet a very rewarding experience.