Stair by Daizen
Stairs are simply steps that allow us to move to different heights, but they also become a main design feature of the home. Stair design sometimes takes as much time as designing the house structure. Building stairs is not difficult, but to build with safety, furniture grade, it is not like a house structure – it requires a higher skill set and much drier materials. There are different types of stair design – cut out stairs, housed stairs, suspended stairs, spiral stairs, mono stringer stairs etc. Daizen has built over 100 stairs. Here are some examples of how Daizen approaches building one-of-a-kind stairs.
We have extended our services to build stair-focused projects and welcome your inquiries.
This is a one-of-a-kind stair that is completely custom designed. The centre post is a solid 30″x30″ post, but there is no stair stringer to support the treads. Stair treads (steps) are supported at the centre post where they interconnect? Otherwise, the stair hangs from a railing made out of steel. Our process involved fitting all treads and the landing on a temporary support, then we built the steel railing and hung the treads to complete the project.
To keep the landing at the same thickness as the stair tread, we built a steel frame in a fish bone pattern and laminated the solid wood pieces from the top and bottom.
Housed stair
Housed stairs are very clean and strong. This type of stair can be assembled prior to installation, which allows for a faster installation process and makes the stair connection to the wall and floor easier to work with. The view from under the landing is also highly visible and we always pay attention to how the stair looks from all sides.
- The landing is suspended from specially shaped member from above.
Steel stringer housed type stair: Wood is easy to shave and adjust but steel isn’t, so all measurement need to be accurate. This is a nice stair design that fits well within a modern style house.
Double stringer housed stair built in Japan.
Cut out stair
A typical cut out stair looks like this. The length of the spindles can be attached directly to treads. The stringer size must be a focus with this style because there is a big chunk of wood to be cut out.
Cut out stair during construction: Note that the landing is suspended. A lot of thinking and experimentation went into building this stair.
Spiral stair
Inside spiral stair is not always useable, but fits well when using a round log as a centre post.
Suspended spline shape stair: A uniform radius spiral stair is difficult to build, but when the radius is not uniform, it requires an actual scale template be built first. Railings were “three-dimensionaly” bent. The core was replaced with structural plywood with a through-bolt attached that is holding the end of the treads.
Stair on a regular type of frame: Once the walls are up, we build the stringer to the wall on site and make a template for all tread/steps. We pre-manufacture these in our shop so they may be installed, simply, on site.
Mono stringer stairs with steel seem to be a favorite style of many people. Key to building this stair is consideration for adjustment because the steel receiver will not be in a perfect position.
Stuck up stair
This stair system is designed and engineered to have a 1,000 lbs point load in the middle of the stair. The core of each step is made out of glulam (GLB) and cladded with walnut. We allocated a gap between the GLB and walnut to allow for some movement and filled it with an expanded form. The walnut did not come any wider than 10″ so we grain-matched the board to look like solid wood. This project is ongoing and a completed photo will be posted later.
Onsite built stair. This project required more work on the curved railing. The grip profile is carved from solid wood.
It seems like most of our stair design specifications fit a 10″ run and 7.5″ rise and we make fine adjustments in this range. To make an open staircase, the maximum opening around the stair and railing by building code is 4”. This leads us to use 3.5″ thick stair treads, with the spindle space in the railing at 5″ apart. Our stair stock materials are in 4×12 select grade, dried to 12% minimum.
Interested in finding out more?
At Daizen, we ensure client expectations and understanding of processes are met through all phases of our work, from structural design and engineering to fabrication of timber frames and assembly and installation.