How can I choose the perfect staircase for my home?
Here below you find some useful suggestions from our Stairs Experts to help you in choosing the perfect staircase. Our guidelines will help in taking the best decision for you and your whole family.
Beside providing access to the upper levels of the house, a bedroom or a mezzanine, a sun deck or a garden area, the staircase also represents a distinctive architectural feature for any home design. Are you planning to build your new home and need a brand new staircase? Are are refurbishing your home and want to replace your existing stair with a new functional and outstanding one? Follow our tips and you will find the perfect staircase for your home.
- TIP 1 – Space available
- TIP 2- Stair design guide
- TIP 3 – Design, style and materials
- TIP 4 – Budget available
- TIP 5 – Building Code and safe
TIP 1 – Space available
How much space do we need for a staircase? What is the minimum width of a stairway?
Look carefully at the space you have available for the stairs. This can help you thinking of a design that will be functional and will perfectly fit in your house. We suggest straight or L-shape staircases if you have a tiny house. We can also guide you into the huge selection of elegant and stylish Spiral Staircases. If the area you have is larger, you can opt for a bigger and more decorative staircase, such as U-shape, curved or even helical. By providing us with basic information as ceiling opening measures and floor to floor height, we will be able to design the perfect stair solution for your house.
If you cannot create an suitable opening for a spiral staircase , you may wish to consider a combined staircase with a mixture of straight and spiral treads.
TIP 2- Stair design guide
Depending on the space available you can hence choose from many stairs shapes and layouts. You can find many stairs design ideas on our custom stairs collections page.
Open Staircases: the natural way to walk upstairs
We believe that the most popular is the open staircase shape, which can be designed as straight flight, quarter turn staircase, half turn staircase or even S-shape. We can design the open staircase (sometimes also called flight staircase) to suit any space available and can adjust it to go after any configuration. This is probably also the most comfortable and easy to walk stair shape. We can achieve a quarter turn staircase with a 90° quarter turn landing, with two 45° winders or with three 30° winders. The landing or winders can be provided at the staircase entrance, midway or at the top.
A half–turn staircase instead consists of two straight parallel flights connected by 180 degree turn . They are also called U-shaped stairs. We can achieve a 180° turn using a rectangular landing, two square landings or a number of winders.
Spiral Staircases: a distinctive touch of class
Spiral stairs are often confused with curved or helical stairs. Although, both types of stairs follow a helical arc, spiral stairs usually are made very compact and the treads twist around a center pole.
We have our own way of designing our exclusive spiral stairs and that is to enhance the spiral shape up to the highest level. Click to view one of our spectacular glass staircase fitted in Usa.
The floor area needed for a spiral staircase is normally reduced. We are anyway able to enhance the spiral stair and let it become the Central Feature of your house or working space. Click on our spiral stairs section to find inspiration and ideas.
Helical or Curved Staircases: a statement for any Interior Design
Here is where our Stair expertise really stands out. A curved staircase doesn’t require a central column. We can design the supporting structure with stringers or a central spine fitted laterally or under treads. You can chose among different layouts, circular, half circle, s-shape or other special shapes. Many styles are also possible. Traditional or Contemporary Stairs, Wooden Spiral Stairs or Glass Stairways our designers will guide you in choosing the best option.
Combination or mixed Staircases
If the space available is restricted but you still want an exclusive stair design, you may wish to consider a “combination staircase”. This will have a straight departure or exit but curved or spiral treads as intermediate steps. A spiral staircase with entrance or exit with straight steps is also a good option to make your spiral stairway more comfortable.
TIP 3 – Design, style and materials
Besides the design, you need to choose among many types of materials which will give the final look to your stair. What types of materials are recommended to build a staircase?
You can opt for different kind of wood, wrought iron, marble, granite or stones if you prefer a traditional style. If your house is instead modern or contemporary you may prefer powder coated steel, stainless steel, acrylic materials or glass. Combination of materials is however the best choice if you want to give an extraordinary and timeless look to your staircase.
At Grand Design Stairs the research for new Stairs Designs, materials and solutions is continuous. We always stay up-dated and follow the last Architectural and Designs Staircases trends. The staircase is nowadays not only a functional element connecting two or more floors, it is a central feature in any space, being this a small private house, a big villa, a hotel, a venue center, a shopping mall, a new build office or others. Stairs have to be perfectly integrated with any Interior Design.
Whichever material you choose, make sure that it fit the overall interior design of your home. Our stairs designers will be happy to suggest you any possible choice and selection.
TIP 4 – Budget available
Depending on the materials, shape and design you decide to choose the staircase can be set a at different price range and the final price may vary significantly.
As a general guide-line Steel Stairs are more cost effective than solid timber stairs or glass stairs, but there are various mixtures of materials which fit within the different price ranges.
Straight or spiral stair are generally more cost effective than curved or helical staircases. We suggest two ways to find your perfect stair design at the right budget.
1-Find the type of staircase you like (taking some reference images on our website or on the web) and contact us to have a quote. In this way you will find out whether the budget you have allocated to the stairs is sufficient for the type of stairs you have in mind.
If the budget is lower, we can help you in finding alternative solutions, trying to keep the style and design you want. All our staircases are all fully bespoke, this allow us to work with many different choices and solutions at different prices.
2-Set your own budget and contact us to find out what choices and stairs options you may have within the budget you have.
TIP 5 – Building Code and safety
Our stairs Expert will guide you in the selection of the most safe and comfortable staircase for you and your family. Safety is always our priority.
When manufacturing a staircase we refer to the current building regulations requirements. We also take into account the easiness in climbing the stair, especially when children or elders have access to it.
As building regs may vary for each country, region or city it is absolutely essential that you check with your local building officer which rules to apply to your project in your area.
Do you need help or more suggestions from our Stairs Experts?
It was a good tip when you informed us that by combining different materials for our staircase design, we can get an extraordinary and timeless look while keeping it functional. I decided to include the staircase when I renovated my home in Brooklyn next month, so I was considering getting new balusters for it. I’ll keep this in mind while I look for a provider working in the area to contact about the wood balusters I need for my staircase soon.
I’m renovating my house in Torrance next spring, and I was thinking of including the staircase while I’m at it to match the new aesthetic of our residence. It’s good that you mentioned looking carefully at the space we have available for the staircase since this will help us determine a functional design that will perfectly fit our house. I’ll take note of this while I look for service providers in Torrance to hire for the custom staircase installation I need for my home renovation project soon.