Canadian Firm Redefines How Stairs are Built

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• Typical Staircase

Of all the challenges involved in building a home, making a good set of stairs is up near the top of the list. That’s why even some brand new houses have squeaky stairs, and why so few do-it-yourselfers ever tackle the job of building stairs themselves. The task has two main stumbling blocks:

1. The mechanics of putting together stair parts so they perform well.
2. The mental challenge of designing a staircase so it feels comfortable underfoot while meeting all necessary building codes.

An innovative Canadian product that’s on the market right now solves both these problems. It couples the power of the internet with the advantages of mass production, creating completed stairs of lower cost, higher quality and in much less time, even for those without advanced skills.

The product itself is a modular steel stair stringer system made by a company called Stairframe, but I know first hand that the advantage of this product goes beyond just the hardware involved. It’s an information and design thing, too, and to understand how, you need to know something of the hidden structure that’s beneath every typical staircase.

Typical Staircase Structure

• The parts of any stairs you walk on are called treads, but supporting these underneath you’ll almost always find things called stringers.
• These are thin, step-shaped members, typically wood, that gives the staircase its shape while bearing the load of people walking.
• Designing and cutting stringers is also one of the trickiest parts of the stair builders trade, and that’s where Stairframe comes in.

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