The walking surface, and the part that has to be flat, secure and thick enough to take a nosing. Depth varies across a flight more often than people expect, so treads are cut individually.
The vertical face. Painted risers with stained treads is the common Calgary choice, and it changes the material order and the finishing sequence.
The projecting front edge. Profile, overhang and how it meets the tread govern both the look and the feel underfoot, and it is the detail that separates a fitted stair from a covered one.
Lifting the carpet shows what each step is made of. From there every tread, riser and nosing is measured and cut for its own step, which is why a converted flight reads as fitted joinery rather than a covering.
Two staircases with the same step count can be very different jobs.
A closed flight has walls on both sides and simple square cuts. An open side needs a returned end on every tread and mitred detail, and it adds real labour per step.
Balusters that sit into the tread have to be dealt with individually. Whether they are removed and reset or worked around changes the method and the timeline.
Pie-shaped winder steps and mid-flight landings are cut one at a time. A straight flight of thirteen is quicker than a flight of ten with a turn in it.
Some Calgary flights hide solid wood worth keeping, some hide construction-grade stringers never meant to be seen. Both are workable, but they are different scopes.
Adding tread thickness changes riser heights, particularly the top and bottom steps where the stair meets the finished floors.
Our rates in Canadian dollars. We charge based on your written quote. Stairs are priced per step, counted from the flight, and open sides, winders and spindles set where each step lands in the rate.
$1 to $3 per sq ft
Our rate for removing existing floor covering. Stairs run slower than open rooms because every staple and tack strip is taken out by hand.
$80-$150 per step
Material, cutting, nosings and finishing for each step. Open-sided steps add the returned, mitred end on every tread.
$40-$80 per step
Vinyl plank treads and stair nosings fitted step by step where a wood finish is not wanted.
A staircase is not a small floor. It is a set of repeated joinery units, and the quote follows the step count and the complexity of each step, not the square footage.
A closed flight, walled on both sides, is the straightforward version. Treads are cut to fit between two walls and the ends are hidden. An open side, where the stair is visible from the room, is a different job. Each tread needs a returned end, mitred so the grain turns the corner cleanly, and that detail repeats on every step. Flights with one open side and one closed side are common in Calgary bungalows and split levels, and they sit between the two in labour.
The tread is the walking surface and has to be flat, solidly fixed and deep enough to carry a nosing. Depths vary along a flight more often than homeowners expect, so treads are measured and cut individually rather than batch-cut.
The riser is the vertical face. Stained treads with painted risers is the usual Calgary choice, and it is a practical one: it costs less than matching wood throughout, and it makes the joint between tread and riser more forgiving.
The nosing is the projecting front edge, and it is the detail that decides whether a stair looks fitted or covered. Profile and overhang get chosen alongside the flooring on the landings, so the top step reads as part of the floor above it rather than an add-on.
Nothing about a carpeted stair is confirmed until the carpet is lifted. Homes in the 1960s to 1980s bungalow ring frequently have solid treads underneath that are worth keeping. Newer suburban builds usually have construction-grade treads that were never intended to be seen, which get capped with new material instead.
Staples are the tedious part. A carpeted flight can hold hundreds of them, and every one comes out by hand before anything is fitted. This is also the moment to chase squeaks, since stringers and tread ends are briefly exposed and can be refastened.
Riser height is the technical check. Adding tread thickness raises each step slightly, and the effect concentrates at the top and bottom where the stair meets the finished floors above and below. Those two steps get planned deliberately.
Wood on a staircase is subject to the same dry-air behaviour as wood on a floor, and Calgary is a demanding place for it. Heated indoor relative humidity here routinely falls under 30 per cent in winter, below the 30 to 50 per cent range that both Health Canada and the National Wood Flooring Association recommend. Chinooks make the swings sharper by moving outdoor conditions dramatically within hours.
On a stair, that shows up as a hairline opening at the joint between tread and riser through the coldest months, closing again in spring. It is seasonal movement in a natural material, not a fault. Acclimatising the material properly before fitting, and keeping indoor humidity from bottoming out, is what keeps it to a hairline.
The other Calgary factor is grit. Below minus fifteen degrees the City treats roads with pickle, a mix that is mostly fine gravel rather than salt, and it arrives indoors on boots all winter. The top flight from an entry takes the worst of it, which is a reason to think about finish durability and a mat at the door.
Sometimes. Many Calgary homes from the 1960s to the 1980s have solid treads under the carpet that clean up well. Newer builds more often have construction-grade treads that were always meant to be covered, and those get capped with new material rather than sanded.
No. Stained treads with painted risers is a common and durable combination, and it costs less than matching wood throughout. It also hides the joint line between step and riser more forgivingly.
Close, rarely exact. Stair treads are thicker stock than floor boards, they take stain differently, and an existing floor has aged. We aim for a deliberate match at the top and bottom landings rather than an invisible one.
Every tread on an open side needs a returned, mitred end that reads as a finished edge from the room. That is joinery on each step, repeated the length of the flight.
Lifting the carpet is the right time to find and fix squeaks, because the treads and stringers are exposed. We refasten what we can reach, though a squeak coming from framing behind a closed stringer may not be reachable from above.
It depends on the finish system and the step count. We set out the working sequence, including which steps are usable at which stage, before the job starts.