Bespoke Staircase

When we were making the roof in 2009 Michael our, then 19 year old, carpenter said he’d had a good idea for a set of stairs that he thought we would like. 
It meant using some of the old beams we had removed from the kitchen as stringers and newels, old oak bits taken from the old roof as handrails and thick newer oak planks as treads.
Knowing, as we did, how good an eye he has for the art in wood and how in particular he gets “us” and our slight quirkiness and enthusiasm for re-using the original materials back into the house, we said we would ponder it although I was already sold on the idea. 
I was as ever very keen on using as much old wood as possible back into the house and Michael and myself had discussed the construction of such a stair case and the difficulties involved. 
Mrs B was concerned that it would all be a bit too “Hobbity” but in the end we both decided that a normal square flat sided staircase would not look right in the house so we asked when he was available and that we placed our trust in his skill and artistic eye.

To give you an idea of his work so far in the house and why we had no hesitation in asking him to do the stairs this is the door he put in for us between the kitchen and lounge. Say no more!




The stairs were to be built with one turn which would be next to the old original doorway from the kitchen. 
I had already done the basic math’s for the height of the platform and the number, depth and height of the treads. 

We started on 17th August and after some fine tuning of the maths we built a three sided concrete block box to take the platform. This would later be rendered and it also solved a small problem in that the bottom of the wall behind, although never what you could call damp, never seemed to be as dry as other parts of the wall. 
We just left an air gap behind so it can breath in and out on its own. 


It would become an under-stairs cupboard on the side of the lounge but will be a large wine rack on the kitchen side.



Michael had chosen the main newel post which is about 170mm squarish so it was a case of stand that up into position and put on the platform at the right height and cut it into the newel for support. 




Next was to select the lower stringer (originally a beam from the kitchen). The beam is as heavy as iron and there were lots of lifting’s, holdings and finally a cut for the angles for floor and join to main newel. 
We offered it up a few times until Michael was happy with all the angles and joins and then set about marking in the steps and then carving the slots by hand. 
This was difficult due to the lumpy shape of the old wood, but with a bit of ingenious use of the laser level and the knowledge and innovation of a good joiner he soon had all the marks required and set about cutting out the grooves for the treads to sit in. 
Micheal can be seen here working on the grooves






Once we had the groves in place and the lower newel chosen (originally a lintel from the old back door) it was a case of putting them into position. 


You can see in the next picture where we have taken out part of the wall to take the treads. We did this as carefully as possible but being an old wall "it" decided how much was coming out and when. 
There was lots of in-ing and outing with the treads and work with the 9 inch disc cutter to make sure we had enough penetration into the wall for the steps which is about 8cms for most of them. 




It was then a case of fix in the steps and secure up the wall as tightly packed and wedged in place as possible.





And this is the lower section in place. You can look through the treads and see where Mrs B had rendered the outside of the concrete block platform to bring it in line with the rest of the room 





So onwards and upwards and to select the next stringer. 
I can assure you that moving this beast in and out of position was “hard graft”. It must have weighed at least a couple of hundredweight but with some careful placing of b&d workmates and various boxes we became quite adept at moving it about, although I did grunt a lot during the process.

 

We had to dry fix the upper stringer for Michael to weave his magic again and that gave us the lines for the groves into the wall. 
We cut these into the wall with a big Stihl disc cutter with the water hose attachment on to keep the dust down. 
It made a bit of mess on the wall but it soon dried out and sponged clean again.
We also made sure we had covered our previous work as although the newels and main stringers were old oak in excess of a couple of hundred years the treads are fairly new (3 years at best) and so it is important to protect them against staining.







After much jiggling and grunting and lifting up and down we finally had it in place with the top and bottom steps in. After that it was easy enough to slide the rest of the steps into place.





This is me cleaning up a step ready for insertion and followed by Michael in the background slotting the last one in and making ready for the hand rails. 





So after plenty of hard work on the sander and careful patch rendering of the wall we are starting at the top of the stairs and looking down to the platform. 





And now from the platform to the ground. Although it is difficult to see they actually splay out at the bottom by 15cms more than the top, which one of our more artistic friends noticed and said “It gives them a generous, welcoming and inviting feel as you use them” 





Here they are as seen from the lounge




Here are some more detailed shots





The old oak has been treated so far with 2 coats of 50 / 50 Danish Oil and white spirit and two coats of pure Danish oil. They will only need another coat or so with a run b down with very fine wire wool in between 





The newer greener oak treads have been treated so far with two coats of “Tung Oil” on a 50 / 50 mix with white spirit. They will go on to receive 3 more coats of pure Tung oil allowing for 48 to 72 hours or more drying each time.





And here they are in all their glory. 
The door under the stairs is actually the original back door trimmed down top and bottom to fit. Width wise it was perfect. 
The bunting is for the Stair Opening Party we had which was well attended by the village folk and a merry night was had by all.

Well aware that they wont be to everybody's taste however "we" are chuffed to bits with them and they fit perfectly into the room and make the transition from downstairs to upstairs a more interesting trip than merely “going upstairs”.

I can assure you they are a joy to walk up and down and feel absolutely solid, almost as though they have grown there. 
They are also very tactile and we often find visitors often just touching the wood.