Stairs & Staircases

Thinking about putting in a staircase in your home or office? Struggling to keep up with all the terminology and considerations from your architect? Here is a quick and simple terminology guide to help you understand the ins and outs of staircase design and construction.

• Baluster-the vertical member, plain or decorative, that acts as the infill between the handrail and base rail (or tread if cut string).
• Bull nose tread or curtail tread-is a large curved first (or second) tread that curves out past the side of the stair. See the last or bottom right photo on the Contemporary Stairs page.
• Closed Strings-The treads and risers are housed within the inside of a closed string. From the outside of the stair, a closed string looks like one straight solid beam running along the bottom of the balustrade.
• Cut Strings-Are cut to follow the profile of the treads and risers. From the outside of the stair you can see that the edge of all treads and risers are exposed.
• Fascia-is the decorative board that goes around the edge of the stairwell (covering the thickness of the beams between ceiling and floor. Tod Stairs can do it if required, but it is not covered on quotations unless listed specifically.
• A fry pan-is used to begin (or end) a level run of handrail. It can also be used to begin or end the handrail at the bottom of a set of stairs (or at the first tread) when there isn’t room for a wreathed scroll. It looks like a flat circular disk. See Wreaths, scrolls and Volutes in the product information section.
• Going-the going of a flight of stairs is the horizontal distance between the face of the first and last risers. The individual going of a step is measured from face of riser to face of riser and for domestic use should be a minimum of 220mm.
• Open Stair-Is a stair that doesn’t have risers, allowing you to see the space in between all of the treads.
• Pitch-the angle between the pitch line and the horizontal.
• Rise-the rise of a flight is the vertical distance between the floors or landings connected by the flight. The individual rise is the vertical measurement from top of tread to top of tread
• Risers-These are the vertical boards that go between each tread.
• Skirting-is moulding that goes around the wall at the side of landings to finish it off.
• Step- the tread and riser combined.
• Strings/Stringers-These are the supports for the treads and risers.
• Treads-These are the horizontal boards that you walk on.
• Valence brackets-are a decorative element cut from a flat piece of timber applied to the side of the stair below each tread.
• Winders -are radiating steps narrower at one end that are used to change the direction of a stairs through 90° or 180°.
• Wreath-is a section of handrail that appears to twist around a corner as it rises up or drops down. These are carved out of large solid blocks of wood.

Regulations pertaining to stairs and balustrading are reasonable and work to promote safer buildings. Regulations should reflect industry standards and a balance between safety and practicality. Below are a list of a few staircase regulations and additional guidelines to consider when designing and constructing a staircase.

Headroom

Headroom is a constant problem in staircase design. The minimum headroom that is required for a staircase is 2000mm. Some common problems that occur when calculating headroom include:

• forgetting to allow for the depth of ceiling
• calculating the wrong number of risen down the stairs

Stair Widths

It is important to get the width of your staircase right to maximise the amount of room in your home while still providing enough width for an adequate flow of traffic. The width of the stairs can change how step the staircase feels when climbing. It is recommended that domestic stair width is 900mm.

Balustrading/Handrail Heights

Balustrading and handrail heights are set minimums in the Building Code of Australia and therefore must be adhered to. It is important to note that when specifying these heights on plans that finished floor surfaces including carpet be taken into account.

Geometric/Curved Stairs

Geometric and curved staircases are usually designed to create a maximum impact from a design point of view. Below are a few things that need to be considered with geometric and curved staircase. Firstly try to avoid landings in a geometric or curved stair. Also try to avoid a pitch or radius changes at any point. All of these things have an effect on the aesthetics of the stair by corrupting the flowing lines that a stair of this type should feature

For a complete HIA guide to the building code of Australia regarding staircases click here. This is a handy guide published by HIA that is designed to simplify and explain volume two of the building code of Australia.

NB. All regulations are Australian Standards

Interior design is the design of space inside homes and buildings, such as choice of decor and furnishings. The interior design process follows a systematic and coordinated methodology. This methodology includes research, analysis, and integration of knowledge into the creative process. In this process the needs and resources of the client are satisfied to produce an interior space that fulfills the project goals.

The design of your home is a very personal thing. When you look at the design of a person’s home it reveals a lot about who they are, their personality and their interests. When the interior of a home is designed specifically to the owner’s desires it helps them to feel that warm ‘homey’ feel in their living space.

Stairking

Stairking have in-house interior designers who can provide professional and creative advice when considering the interior design of your house during building and renovating. They specialize in multilevel homes with staircases that connect each level together. Staircases don’t just have to be a particle way of getting people from one level to the next. They can also contribute dramatically to the interior design of the home and can be an eye catching component of the design.

Process

Stairking in-house interior designers start with space planning then a pattern, or maybe colour mix and then the whole project starts together. There is always something that will inspire the design, it is just a matter of finding the perfect combination for your design.

Ultimately the goal and purpose within every step of the process is to ensure that the designer is producing a staircase that meets all the needs from the design brief and satisfies you as the client. This is achieved through regular consultation between the designer and the client.

For more inforamtion click here for the Stairking Website.