Question on standard stairway for two storey house Porirua

**merv** · 21st June 2017, 12:29

Is anyone in the building trade able to give me a suggested ballpark figure to give me an idea about the cost of getting a standard stairway built for a house in the Porirua area.

This is to be a standard carpet quality stairway (presumably with chip board treads and timber nosings etc). The stairway requires to be 1 metre wide and is split in two at a landing where the stairway does a 180 deg reverse i.e. go up one stair to landing turn right on landing which is 1 metre wide and 2 metres long then go back up second set of stairs to top storey. House is standard ceiling height of 2.4m so from floor to floor is about 2.65m.

So what is ballpark cost and who would you recommend as the stair manufacturer? I can search on line and found Stylecraft Stairways as one local manufacturer. I see they are offering free measure ups on projects over $20,000 and I thought surely the stairway of a normal two storey house is not that expensive, or is it?

A rough ballpark would give me an idea as to whether to start the project at all.

Your comments please.

**tigertim20** · 21st June 2017, 12:57

Can't help you on an approximate cost, but don't underestimate it, by the time you get all your permits, and deal with councils etc who all want their cut, sort out whether or not anything structural is being modified etc etc - even those small projects can cost an arm and a leg.

Gone are the days when you can just bash out a wall to open up the lounge with a sedgehammer and a couple sheets of GIB.

**Swoop** · 21st June 2017, 13:07

Originally Posted by merv

Is anyone in the building trade able to give me a suggested ballpark figure to give me an idea about the cost of getting a standard stairway built for a house in the Porirua area.

This is to be a standard carpet quality stairway (presumably with chip board treads and timber nosings etc). The stairway requires to be 1 metre wide and is split in two at a landing where the stairway does a 180 deg reverse i.e. go up one stair to landing turn right on landing which is 1 metre wide and 2 metres long then go back up second set of stairs to top storey. House is standard ceiling height of 2.4m so from floor to floor is about 2.65m.

So what is ballpark cost and who would you recommend as the stair manufacturer? I can search on line and found Stylecraft Stairways as one local manufacturer. I see they are offering free measure ups on projects over $20,000 and I thought surely the stairway of a normal two storey house is not that expensive, or is it?

Hi Merv,

It will be well under 20k!!
I would think somewhere up to 2-3k~
You want a dog-leg stair by the sound of it. Any competent joinery company would do this, but nowadays trade professions have "specialised" into smaller areas of expertise, but a good shop will still be able to do this.
Are you installing yourself, or fully installed by the tradies?

Either that or get some timber for the strings, make up a router jig and do it yourself.

Originally Posted by tigertim20

Gone are the days when you can just bash out a wall to open up the lounge with a sedgehammer and a couple sheets of GIB.

Like fuck it is!!

**ellipsis** · 21st June 2017, 13:44

Originally Posted by Swoop

Hi Merv,

Like fuck it is!!

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

**merv** · 21st June 2017, 14:21

Thanks for your help guys, what I'm basically looking at doing is replacing one stair set with another in the same place because we've never been happy with the ones there now - treads too short - if it is in the few grand range it would be worth doing, over 10 grand probably not, but I had no idea what price the stair sets are supplied by the joiners and thought I'd ask first before approaching someone. So shouldn't be any major structural work involved, just ripping one set out and replacing them and making finishes good.

**Swoop** · 21st June 2017, 15:57

Originally Posted by merv

So shouldn't be any major structural work involved, just ripping one set out and replacing them and making finishes good.

If you aren't happy with the treads of the existing stair, there might be challenges ahead. You have two constraints: total rise (vertical movement) and total going (horizontal travel).
You can add a step into the landing, which may help the equation. Really you need a joiner to do a measure-up and give you a better idea.

Get a few different prices (if that really needed to be said) and from out of town too.

A mate had a kitchen built in Palmy then trucked to Wellytown since it was cheaper than using Wellytown suppliers.

**Laava** · 21st June 2017, 17:48

Originally Posted by Swoop

If you aren't happy with the treads of the existing stair, there might be challenges ahead. You have two constraints: total rise (vertical movement) and total going (horizontal travel).
You can add a step into the landing, which may help the equation. Really you need a joiner to do a measure-up and give you a better idea.

Get a few different prices (if that really needed to be said) and from out of town too.

A mate had a kitchen built in Palmy then trucked to Wellytown since it was cheaper than using Wellytown suppliers.

Yep as above, assuming you have this landing of 1x2m then you can split this into 2,3 or even 4 treads. Without looking at it, it is hard to say but normally I could custom build these on site in two days, plus materials, probably close to $2.5k

**Akzle** · 21st June 2017, 18:31

DIY cunt. glue and chipboard, can't do worse than some of the shit i've fuken seen

**jellywrestler** · 21st June 2017, 18:56

Originally Posted by merv

Is anyone in the building trade able to give me a suggested ballpark figure to give me an idea about the cost of getting a standard stairway built for a house in the Porirua area.

This is to be a standard carpet quality stairway (presumably with chip board treads and timber nosings etc). The stairway requires to be 1 metre wide and is split in two at a landing where the stairway does a 180 deg reverse i.e. go up one stair to landing turn right on landing which is 1 metre wide and 2 metres long then go back up second set of stairs to top storey. House is standard ceiling height of 2.4m so from floor to floor is about 2.65m.

So what is ballpark cost and who would you recommend as the stair manufacturer? I can search on line and found Stylecraft Stairways as one local manufacturer. I see they are offering free measure ups on projects over $20,000 and I thought surely the stairway of a normal two storey house is not that expensive, or is it?

A rough ballpark would give me an idea as to whether to start the project at all.

Your comments please.

your photos aren't showing up at all, please reload them

**Swoop** · 21st June 2017, 18:59

Originally Posted by Laava

Yep as above, assuming you have this landing of 1x2m then you can split this into 2,3 or even 4 treads.

A half-space landing, broken into 2@ quarter-space landings, or then into three / four winders... The issue is that winders become more of a risk to use and more costly to make and install.

**merv** · 21st June 2017, 19:06

Originally Posted by jellywrestler

your photos aren't showing up at all, please reload them

I didn't load any photos that's why you can't see any lol.

**Laava** · 21st June 2017, 19:20

Originally Posted by Swoop

A half-space landing, broken into 2@ quarter-space landings, or then into three / four winders... The issue is that winders become more of a risk to use and more costly to make and install.

Absolutely. But it can be done if need be. Adding one extra rise in the landing area can make a huge difference to one of the two flights, might be all that's needed? All academic tho, as I am not doing the job, just giving a ballpark figure...
And if you are custom making on site, the winders are a piece of piss, very little extra time and materials.

**Laava** · 21st June 2017, 19:22

Originally Posted by Akzle

DIY cunt. glue and chipboard, can't do worse than some of the shit i've fuken seen

You have a diy cunt? Made of glue and chipboard? Better than one of the goats?

**BMWST?** · 21st June 2017, 19:37

Originally Posted by merv

Thanks for your help guys, what I'm basically looking at doing is replacing one stair set with another in the same place because we've never been happy with the ones there now - treads too short - if it is in the few grand range it would be worth doing, over 10 grand probably not, but I had no idea what price the stair sets are supplied by the joiners and thought I'd ask first before approaching someone. So shouldn't be any major structural work involved, just ripping one set out and replacing them and making finishes good.

is there room for a stairway that is longer?If you want longer treads it is gonna take up more room.If you need to move something up stairs that is a major.If there is room downstairs for more treads you have to watch out you dont run into headroom trouble where the downstairs flight crosses over the line of upstairs. a stairway in the scenario you say is ussually 15 risers so 14 treads.maybe you can have 1 step in the landing if things are getting tight.