Floating oak staircase

The project:

This floating oak staircase is just the sort of bespoke joinery project we love; a challenging brief requiring a very particular solution.  Our client needed the stair to provide access to a new rooftop extension. The project was for an award winning contemporary timber house; it had to match the style of the existing staircase and fit into a tricky asymmetrical  space with sloping walls and not many right angles.

Design:

Our client had basic drawings from their architect but no construction details. We started by building a 3D CAD model from our own survey of the space, to understand how the staircase would fit and how best to build it.

Manufacture and installation:

We quickly realised that because of the shape of the space, each tread would have to be made to an individual template and installed one at a time.  In our workshop, all 30 stair components were machined and prepared from premium grade european oak. The pieces were made over-sized so that we could trim them each one to fit exactly in its’ place.

Each stair tread was laser aligned, jointed to its’ preceding piece and fixed to the timber walls with dowels. The stair had to be supported during construction; only supporting itself once the final piece was fixed in place.  After installation, the floating staircase was sanded and then oiled to match the rest of the oak in the house.  The final touch was to put in a full height toughened glass screen between the two turns in the stair, keeping the floating edge visible.

This is the second floating oak staircase we have made, and we really enjoyed the build.  It’s also the second project we’ve done at Camarthen Place, having been recommended for this job by the neighbours.  They are beautiful buildings and, being entirely constructed from wood, perfect for carpentry work.  Most important of all, our clients were very pleased with the results.  This is what they had to say:

“When we wanted a floating oak staircase in an awkward space, we could not find anyone to take it on, until our neighbour recommended Loci. They not only completed the stairs on time and within a fair budget, they went above and beyond to make sure that we got exactly what we wanted. We cannot recommend them highly enough.”