What you are actually getting when you order a staircase

Two staircases can look identical in a brochure photo and be completely different things once you know what to look at. That is the honest problem with buying a staircase: almost everything that separates a good one from a cheap one is hidden, in the timber, the sections, the joints and the way it is put together. And there are a lot of ways to make a staircase cheaper to buy that quietly make it more expensive to fit, and more expensive to live with. Here is what you are actually getting, so you can compare like for like before you compare price.

What "oak" actually means

"Oak" is not one thing. First, is it solid oak or engineered oak, a timber core with an oak layer on top? Both are legitimate, and engineered is often more stable, but they are not the same product or the same price, and you should know which you are buying. Second, which oak? European oak, American oak and red oak are all sold simply as "oak", but red oak in particular is softer, more open grained and cheaper, and it stains and wears differently. Third, where has it actually been? A species label tells you the tree, not the journey. Plenty of timber is shipped to Asia for processing and back again before it reaches your hall. None of that is automatically wrong, but you have the right to know it, because it is often the difference between two prices.

The timber, and whether it will take a stain

If you are painting the stair, some of this matters less, because paint hides a lot. If you are staining it, it matters enormously. Cheaper timber is often finger-jointed, short lengths glued end to end, and softwood bought to stain can turn up looking like a Battenberg cake, a patchwork of mismatched blocks and joints. Stain shows every one of them, so a stair that would have painted up fine is effectively unstainable. If you want a stained finish, ask whether the visible timber is finger-jointed and whether it will take an even stain, because you cannot fix this after it is built. For why the finish itself matters to the timber, see our guide on finishing your new staircase.

The strings

The strings are the long boards the treads and risers sit in, and their thickness is one of the biggest differences in price. A 32mm string has long been the mark of a quality staircase. A 27mm string is thinner, cheaper, and the section a lot of volume housebuilding uses. In a photo they look identical. In the flesh, and over the years, the lighter stair is a different stair. Almost nobody thinks to ask, so ask: are the strings 32mm or 27mm?

The risers

A riser is the upright face between two treads. It can be solid timber, plywood or MDF, and they are not equal. Solid is best. Plywood is a sound middle option, because it holds a screw without splitting. MDF is the one to watch: it tends to crumble and split when you screw into it, and it does not take paint as well. Ask what the risers are, and treat MDF as the cheap end.

The handrails

Two things quietly separate a proper handrail from a cheap one. First, is it cut to length, or is that being left to whoever fits it on the day? Second, is it tenoned into the newel posts, a proper joint that locks the rail solid and square, or just butted up and screwed? A tenoned rail is stronger, squarer and lasts. A butted-and-screwed one is quicker and cheaper, and you feel the difference every time you use it.

The glass

If your balustrade is glass, thickness matters. Is it 8mm or 10mm? The thicker glass costs more and feels more solid, and the difference does not show in a picture. It is worth knowing which you are quoted, because it is an easy place to shave the quote and lose it in the feel of the finished stair.

The landing

If your stair has a landing, the single biggest question is what the landing includes. Is it just the flight, or does the price cover the landing flooring, the skirting and the joists that carry it? And on the balustrade around the landing, is the nosing included? A landing can be most of the difference between two quotes, so a stair that looks cheaper is often cheaper because half the landing is not in it.

Delivery, and getting it into the house

Two practical ones people forget. Is delivery included in the price, or added later? And when it arrives, will the driver actually help get it in, or is a heavy, awkward and expensive staircase going to be left on your drive for you to move? Neither changes the stair itself, but both change what the day costs you and how the stair is treated before it is even fitted.

Is it dry fitted? (the important one)

This is the one that matters most and the one almost nobody knows to ask. Dry fitting means the whole staircase is assembled once in the workshop, before it ships, to check it actually goes together. A good fit on site mostly takes care of itself if the factory did this. If it was never dry fitted, a factory error, something as small as a slipped setting on a machine, is not caught until the fitter is stood in your house trying to make good a mistake that should never have left the workshop. Ask if it is dry fitted. If you get a blank look, that is your answer.

Cheap to buy is not the same as cheap to own

Put all of this together and the pattern is clear: there are a lot of ways to make a staircase cheaper to purchase that make it substantially more expensive to fit and to own. Thinner strings, MDF where solid should be, finger-jointed timber under a stain, no dry fit, half a landing left out of the quote. None of it shows in a photo, and all of it shows later. You do not have to buy the most expensive stair. You just have to know what you are actually getting, so that when one quote is cheaper you know exactly why. Ask these of anyone, us included. For the questions to take into the conversation, see questions to ask before you buy a staircase.