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Materials
Framing
Changes
Roofing
Stairs
Siding
Mason
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Stairs
We
purchased our stairs from a local stair shop (go figure). You actually can
buy stairs from lumber yards (Coffman
is the popular brand) where you pick parts out like ordering Chinese food.
My framer told me about the local guy who he works with often. I visited
the shop and
was impressed. All he makes is stairs and he's good at it. The nice thing
was since he new my framer they exchanged notes regarding what was needed
and he came out and made the final measurements once the majority of the
framing was complete. Joanne and I had to make the following decisions:
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How should
the stairs look from the side? The two styles are exposed treads or
have the treads capped with a skirt board. The skirt board hides the
profile of the actual steps so all you see is the angled board. We
opted for the exposed treads so you see the treads and risers from the
side. We had the treads stained to match the hardwood floors and
painted the risers white.
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What type of newel
post? The style of our house (craftsman / cabin) led us to choose a
simple square post. The stair carpenter designed it with us and it was
inexpensive. You can get way crazy with the fancy turned and carved
newel posts but that would never look right in our house.
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What type of
posts? Again, we went for a simple square baluster.
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What type of
rail? Here we go again, the boring couple... we went for a simple but
slightly oversized hand rail. We had it end into the wall and the
newel post. Some stairs have the rail do that fancy swirl at the
bottom that blends into the newel, looks good in some houses (and on
some budgets) but not ours.
 My
framer installed the stairs... only the stairs. Once he leaves you have a
means of getting between floors and that's about it (see above photo). We left things like
that until all the drywall was up and other finishing tasks. Not having
the posts makes the stairs easier to get materials up.
Later,
we hired a carpenter recommended by the stair manufacturer to install the
posts and rails. Some stair manufactures may also install but our did not.
The guy he recommended installs only stairs and, as you can imagine, is
quite good at it. The parts come sort of as a kit so it is a possible do
it yourself job but I choose not to. You have to notch the first tread and the newel
posts and interlock them. Since you can't really practice I figured to
leave it to a pro. We did pre paint the parts prior to
having them installed.
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