Stair photos please.

[MikeG]

Does anyone here have cut string stairs? If so, could you post a photo, please. I am especially interested in the detail on the string, and particularly of mouldings and brackets, (carved brackets would be a big bonus).

I am also interested in stairs with a carpet runner up the middle, and stair rods, and it would be good to see stairs which are a mixture of painted and varnished timber. Could you say something about the setting, too (ie 15th century cottage, Peak District, or 19th century Georgian town house.......that sort of thing). Also, are the stairs as old as the house, or later replacements.

Thanks.

 

[CliffordPope]

I am also interested in stairs with a carpet runner up the middle, and stair rods,

I think it's important to chose the width of the runner carefully. Too narrow in proportion to the width of the flight looks silly, and makes a narrow stairs look even narrower.

When we laid a runner up two flights of stairs we discovered just how expensive brass stair rods are. So I used quadrant section wood from B&Q, stained to match the rest of the woodwork, secured with a brass screw at each end just outside the width of the carpet.

Corners on landings are problematic. I think the traditional way is to use a continuous run, folding and mitring the corners like wrapping a parcel, with the overlapping bits tucked under. But it always a bit odd underfoot. The advantage is that you can unfasten the whole thing and turn it round or move it a few inches every few years to even out the bits that suffer the most wear.
We only had right-angle bends, so I cut the carpet at 45 degrees and stitched the sections together, matching the pattern. It's theoretically posible to move it a few inches, but in twenty-five years it hasn't worn badly, and we forgot to bother.
The underlay can just be cut and tacked.

 

[MikeG]

Come on Clifford.........where's your photos?

 

[Gothichome]

Mike, I don’t know if any of these pics are what your after but they do show the fancy details.




As you can see the threads have been painted over with a brown enamel, under the brown there is a dark ebony paint, under that I have no idea yet. Hoping It had been stained originally. I see no signs of a runner having been installed, or at the least no signs of runner bars.

 

[MikeG]

Superb, thanks.

 

[MatthewC]

Superb, thanks.

That's a pretty odd fetish, Mike! :lol:

 

[Lime]

'Tis nice.

On bends in the stair the carpet was always flat on the tread, the surplus of carpet on one side was lost in the riser.

 

[MikeG]

Superb, thanks.

That's a pretty odd fetish, Mike! :lol:

Really? Possibly the most important piece of furniture in any house, and often the main place that a craftsman showed off his skills. I'm disappointed that no-one else seems at all interested in stairs. There are hundreds of photos of fireplaces on here, which is fine, but hardly any of stairs. Stairs and doors say as much about a house as any fireplaces do.

 

[CliffordPope]

Here we go:

I agree about the desirability of tucking folds behind risers, but you can't do that on a 90 degree flat turn. You have to either accept a very uncomfortable tuck underfoot, or stop and start again with an ugly discontinuity, or do as we did, create a continuous flow from top to bottom by mitring the corners and joining them.


Sorry, photos don't seem to work. I've already reduced their size to a point where they are hardly worth displaying, but still it won't accept them.

 

[DJH]

I agree with you Mike...the first impression of a house when you enter from the front entrance is gained by the style and appearance of the stairs.

I'm searching through my photographs to find pictures of balusters I cast in antimonial lead for a client many years ago. They took up most of the tread with s/steel reinforcing rods extending through to the underside of the handrail and along with the swirls ther was incorporated an anthemion. I think it was nearly 50 I made for him some with the correct angle to marry to the handrail and the others with straight tops for the landing.

Just another one of the unusual jobs that came through the door.

 

[MikeG]

..........Sorry, photos don't seem to work. I've already reduced their size to a point where they are hardly worth displaying, but still it won't accept them.

Host them on line, Clifford, at somewhere like Imgur, and just paste the URL from that into your posts. It works every time, and your photos don't have to be tiny. There is an auto-resizing facility at Imgur, too.

 

[Me!]

Possibly the most important piece of furniture in any house, and often the main place that a craftsman showed off his skills.

Indeed. Not cut string, but probably the most fancy wooden staircase i have ever seen is this one in a bookshop called Livraria Lello in Porto.

None of the photographs really do it justice, it is very impressive.

 

[MikeG]

My goodness!! The bookcases are stunning too.

 

[Gothichome]

Gezzzzz, can you imagine the fits that staircase gave the Craftsman that had to build it.

 

[livias]

This set of stairs at Hide resturant in Mayfair is pretty splendid too and I am off to have a drink and look at it next time I go to London

I agree with MikeG about the importance of stairs. I am making stairs for our house which will be very lovely (and cut string) when they are finished. Which is a slow process cos I have never made stairs before and they are S shaped and VERY DIFFICULT to create. Ah well, I like a challenge So far I have done full scale mockup, full scale drawings,1/10 scale model and am just finishing a set of CAD drawings. The real thing will start any year now ...

Gothichome your stairs are lovely. I am particularly interested in the newel post which is what I am designing for my stairs atm. Why are there so few pictures of newel posts on the interweb?

 

[MikeG]

Beautiful, Livias!

 

[CliffordPope]

https://imgur.com/3Ka9t5x
https://imgur.com/4NEswXM
https://imgur.com/EcXoRty
https://imgur.com/o7a1zQ8
https://imgur.com/QaI1ak5
https://imgur.com/pAxAT73
https://imgur.com/6PVcC48

 

[MikeG]

Thanks Clifford, that's excellent. Are those stair "rods" timber quadrants?

 

[CliffordPope]

Yes. I chose quadrant as holding the carpet more firmly than round (thinking of towels always falling off rails!) and also easier to drill and fix.
Obviously brass with elegant end-fittings would have been best, but the cheapest were about £50 each, about 25 years ago, and we'd have needed 30.