What does a staircase renovation cost, and do you need a whole new stair?

Refurbish or replace: how to tell

Walk the stairs and look for these before you price anything.

• Movement or flex underfoot on a tread suggests the tread or its wedges have worked loose, which is usually repairable.
• Spindles that rattle or a handrail that moves is a fixings issue, not a structural one.
• Cracked strings, rot at the base of a newel post or a stair pulling away from the wall need proper inspection.
• Uneven riser heights or a stair that fails current guidance on going and headroom is a replacement conversation.

What you are paying for in a refurbishment

The materials on a spindle and handrail update are not the bulk of the cost. The labour is: removing the old balustrade carefully, cutting and fitting new base and pitch rails, setting every spindle plumb, and getting the newel connections tight so the whole balustrade feels solid rather than decorative.

Cladding treads and risers over an existing flight is the other common route, and its cost is driven by the number of steps, whether there are winders, and how the nosing detail is handled.

Costs people do not see coming

Staircases sit in the busiest part of a house, which changes the job.

• Access and protection: the hall, landing and often two floors need covering.
• Decoration: almost every stair job needs painting afterwards.
• Carpet: lifting and refitting, or replacing it, is usually a separate trade.
• Winders and quarter landings, which are much slower than a straight flight.
• Building regulations where the balustrade or stair geometry is being altered rather than replaced like for like.

Keeping the house usable while it happens

A stair is not a room you can shut off. We sequence the work so the flight stays usable overnight wherever possible, and we agree in advance which days will be disruptive so nobody is caught out.

Questions we're asked about this