A staircase, shaped to your space.
A cut-string flight with a moulded handrail and turned balusters, standing in the workshop. Choose the timber, finish and size.
Your staircase
European oak · Hardwax oiled · 900 mm wide
- Risers
- 13
- Going
- 240 mm
- Pitch
- 38.4°
- Twice the rise plus the going
- 620 mm
- Balusters
- 24, 88 mm clear
Rendered illustration · European oak · default finish and size · warm interior light
| Timber | European oak, quarter-sawn |
|---|---|
| Finish | Hardwax oil, matt |
| Clear width | 900 mm |
| Rise per tread | 190 mm |
| Going | 240 mm |
| Risers | 13, over an overall rise of 2,470 mm illustrative |
| Treads | 12, bullnose, 20 mm |
| Edge detail | Ovolo, 9 mm illustrative |
| Handrail | Moulded, 50 × 39 mm, one side illustrative |
| Balusters | 24, turned, 32 mm, 88 mm clear |
| Price band | £14,000 – £19,000 illustrative |
| Lead time | 11 – 14 weeks illustrative |
Cutting list
Taken off the flight above. Sawn sizes carry 3 mm a face to machine out of — a workshop allowance, illustrative.
| Part | No. | Finished | Sawn | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strings | 2 | 280 × 32 | 286 × 38 | Cut string, 2,470 mm overall rise |
| Treads | 12 | 240 × 32 | 246 × 38 | Bullnose, 20 mm, 900 mm clear |
| Risers | 13 | 190 × 20 | 196 × 26 | Housed into the strings |
| Handrail | 1 | 50 × 39 | 56 × 45 | Moulded section, run on the spindle |
| Newels | 2 | 90 × 90 | 96 × 96 | Mortised for string and rail |
| Balusters | 24 | 32 × 32 | 38 × 38 | Turned, 2 per going |
Moulding details
Bullnose treads and an ovolo edge give the flight its profile. These drawings show the sections used in the illustration.
Ovolo
9 mm
The edge detail on the treads, the strings and the door stiles. Two 1.5 mm quirks give the curve a shadow line to start from, which is what makes the arris read across a room rather than only in the hand.
Tread nosing, bullnose
20 mm overlap on a 32 mm tread
Half-round at 16 mm on a 32 mm tread, so the nose is one unbroken curve with no flat in it. Approved Document K allows the nosing to project up to 25 mm over the tread below and sets a 60° minimum included angle beneath it; this projects 20 mm.
Each drawing sits in a 20 mm-wide frame at the intended 1:1 scale; the profile itself spans 18 mm before its outline. Print at 100% with no fit-to-page scaling, then check the calibration bar on the printed sheet with a rule. The nosing’s 20 mm overlap is a separate specification.
100 mm between the inner edges of the two end marks.
The rules a private stair is held to
The dimensional checks below use the cited private-stair guidance. They are an aid to exploring the example; a project still needs a survey and a complete design assessment.
- Twice the rise plus the going
- Twice the rise plus the going (2R + G) must land between 550 and 700 mm. This is the combined check: a 220 mm rise and a 300 mm going are each inside Table 1.1 and together give 740 mm, which is not.
- Approved Document K · Table 1.1, footnote to the Rise and Going columns
- Maximum pitch
- The maximum pitch for a private stair is 42°, measured on the pitch line.
- Approved Document K · Table 1.1, note 1
- Every step the same
- Treads are level and the rise and going of every step are consistent throughout the flight. A flight with one odd step is the classic domestic trip hazard and it is not something a configurator should be able to produce.
- Approved Document K · paragraph 1.5
- Open risers
- If the risers are open, treads overlap by at least 16 mm and a 100 mm sphere must not pass through the opening.
- Approved Document K · paragraph 1.9, dwellings
- The 100 mm sphere
- In a building that may be used by children under five, a 100 mm sphere must not pass through any opening in the guarding, and the guarding must not be readily climbable. This is what sets the baluster count on this flight, not taste.
- Approved Document K · paragraph 1.39a, and paragraph 3.3a for guarding generally
- Headroom
- At least 2 m of clear headroom measured from the pitch line, over the flight and over the landings. A loft conversion may reduce it to 1.9 m at the centre and 1.8 m at the edge where 2 m cannot be achieved.
- Approved Document K · paragraph 1.11 and Diagram 1.3; paragraph 1.13 and Diagram 1.4 for loft conversions
- Landings
- At the top and bottom of every flight, a landing at least as wide and as long as the narrowest width of the flight.
- Approved Document K · paragraph 1.20
- Handrail section
- The moulded section this workshop makes is 50 mm wide by 39 mm deep with rounded edges. That is the non-circular profile in Approved Document K Diagram 1.13 — which is referenced by paragraph 1.36, for buildings other than dwellings. Paragraph 1.34, which covers all buildings, sets a handrail height and no profile. So on a private stair this section is good practice borrowed from the non-dwelling diagram, not a requirement, and it is offered as the workshop's own.
- Workshop figure, illustrative