European oak
Bought through yards in Devon and Dorset and stickered in our own kiln until it settles. Quarter sawn for the medullary ray and because it moves least across a 1000mm tread.
Frome, Somerset Making stairs since 2009
A staircase is a machine you walk up.
We build bespoke timber and steel flights in one workshop in Frome, and we cut them to the millimetre. Set the opening below. The drawing turns as you change it, and every figure is checked live against Approved Document K.
Drawing 01 / Straight flight
Drag to turn
Loading the drawing
- Rise per tread
- 193mm
- Going
- 250mm
- Pitch
- 37.6deg
- Total run
- 3250mm
- Risers
- 14no.
- 2R + G
- 636mm
Within Approved Document K for a private stair
Set the opening
Five decisions. The same five we take on a survey, in the same order.
Approved Document K asks for a rise between 150 and 220mm, a going of at least 220mm, a pitch no steeper than 42 degrees, and twice the rise plus the going landing between 550 and 700mm. A flight of fourteen risers gives you thirteen treads, because the last riser puts you on the floor above. Take the risers down to eleven and the panel turns amber, which is the argument we have on site about once a month.
The workshop
One workshop. Eleven people in it. No subcontracted fitters, ever.
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01
Survey
We measure the opening ourselves, with a laser and a tape, because the two rarely agree and the difference is where stairs go wrong. Two hours, usually. We photograph the joists.
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02
Drawing
You get a full set of shop drawings before a single board is cut. Plan, section, balustrade detail, and the tread schedule. Nothing goes to the saw until you have signed the section.
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03
Machining
Strings and housings are cut on the five axis. Nosings, volutes and anything else you will run a hand along are cut by hand, because a machined curve reads as machined and you can feel it.
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04
Fitting
Our own fitters, two of them, two days on site for a standard flight. Dust sheets down, carpet protected, and the old stair leaves in our van rather than your skip.
Timbers
Three we keep in stock, and anything else you can find us.
Blackened ash
Ash takes a black beautifully and keeps its grain underneath rather than going flat like a paint. Two coats of hardwax oil, cut back between them, done on the bench and not on your landing.
American black walnut
The expensive one, and worth it on an open flight where you see the underside of every tread. We book match across the run when the boards allow, and we will show you the layout before we cut.
Selected flights
Twenty two stairs last year. Three of them are worth showing you.
Georgian townhouse, Bath
Helical
17 risers over 2900mm, quarter sawn oak on a steel core, patinated bronze balustrade with a hand cut volute at the bottom step.
12 weeks
Barn conversion, Bruton
Cantilever
Steel spine buried in a 400mm blockwork wall before plaster, blackened ash treads landing on it with no fixing you can see from the room.
9 weeks
Terrace, Wells
Quarter turn
Replacing a 1976 stair that failed on pitch at 44 degrees. We took the landing back 300mm, which bought us two treads and brought it to 38.
5 weeks
Next step
Send us the opening. Or just a photograph of it.
We survey anywhere inside two hours of Frome at no charge, and further out for the cost of the fuel. If you are still at drawing stage, send the architect's section and we will tell you within a day whether the stair you have been given actually fits.
- Workshop
- Unit 7, Marston Trading Estate
Frome, Somerset BA11 4BT - Open
- Monday to Thursday, 7.30 to 17.00
Friday, 7.30 to 13.00 - Visiting
- Come and see a flight on the bench. Ring first, the machines are loud and we will not hear the door.