Staircases - Floating, Spiral & Custom In Newcastle City

We build the whole staircase. That means the structure - the stringers or central spine, the tread supports and the landing framing - the treads themselves, and the matching balustrade and handrail. A floating stair, for example, needs a concealed steel structure to carry the cantilevered treads, and we design and fabricate that, not just the rail that sits on top. We can also build a new balustrade onto an existing sound stair if that is all you need, but a full flight is very much part of what we do.

A floating stair looks like the treads hang free, but each tread is cantilevered from a concealed structure carrying the load back into the building. That is usually a hidden steel spine running under the treads or a structural stringer built into the wall. The treads and their fixings are designed to carry the imposed loads in AS1170, with the connections sized to whatever they anchor into. The floating look is an engineering job as much as a visual one, which is why we design the structure first and the appearance follows from it.

Yes, that is one of the main reasons to choose a spiral. It turns a full change of level into a tight, roughly circular footprint, so it suits a compact Cooks Hill or Hamilton terrace, a small addition or an access stair to a deck. We build the central column, the winding treads and the balustrade around it, and set the flight out so the going and the barrier meet the current standards. We measure the opening and the available floor space on site so the spiral fits the room it has to live in.

We build stairs in timber, steel and combinations of the two, with glass or stainless for the balustrade. Timber treads give a warm, solid feel and can be finished to suit the home, though timber does need sealing and periodic maintenance to keep its finish. Steel structures and stringers give the strength behind floating and custom flights. For a coastal home we talk through how any exposed metal is specified and coated, because salt reaches inside too near the beaches. We match the materials to the look you want and to how the stair will be used.

We build stair balustrades to the current National Construction Code, which sets a height of around 865mm measured above the nosing line along the flight, rising to around one metre at landings where the fall is more than a metre. Openings must be sized so a 125mm sphere cannot pass, and climbable footholds are avoided where a fall is significant. Glass in the balustrade is toughened or laminated to AS1288. We build to these standards and confirm the exact figures for your stair at the measure rather than giving legal advice.

Yes. The older terraces around Hamilton, Cooks Hill and Merewether often have timber staircases and decorative iron balustrades that owners want to keep in character. We can repair or sympathetically replace timber treads and stringers and rebuild or match a decorative metal balustrade so the flight suits the period of the home. Where the stair also has to meet current barrier heights for a renovation, we work out how to bring it up to standard while respecting the original look. We assess the existing stair on site before recommending an approach.