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What to charge for a serpentine open staircase built for a 9 foot rise and about a 12 foot run. The stair is to be open on the bottom with closed tread and risers and soffit. The stairs is to have a mixture of wood and wrought iron ballusters and to be constructed out of pecan to be matched to the antique walnut newell posts and ballusters that were purchased at auction. Anyone have pricing experience for such a job as this?
Brisketbean
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Whatever you come up with better figure in a lot of sharpening $ . Pecan/hickory is hard on cutting tools . ps where you been , havn't seen you around here in awhile ? Chuck
*The contractor I was working for recently put a 1/4 circle self supporting staircase in a high end custom home. It was made off-site, and trucked in. IT cost $20,000, if that helps you any. That *didn't* include the railing system, by the way.
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Hi Brisketbean!),
My dad had a circular stair built in '75, similar to your description. Walnut and pecan trees were cut from our property and the lumber used to build the stair... from scratch, for six solid weeks, 4 carpenters, case lots of saw blades, the list goes on.
I've found a diamond in the rough company to make all this much easier and much less expensive. Call Mike @ Superior Stair System, 1-541-318-8040, in South Bend Or.. They will custom build for you an excellent understructure with 3 stringers, plywood treads and risers, ready to mount in your location. You then build your stair, cosmetically however you like. They can also supply bending rail for you to custom bend your own handrail on site using your stair as a form. If you don't mind, please mention me when you call. This truly is a superior stair and what these folks are doing is unique to the industry.
Hope this helps.
Bill Smith
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brisketbean,
I'm sorry, but as the "saying" goes, if you have to ask.............
Ed. Williams
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brisketbean-
The way you describe this thing veneer treads and risers may be appropriate. Your location will dictate the price more than anything. Here in Houston, framing labor pays about $1500 for a freestanding radius stair. Material costs depend on local supply prices and design elements. JRNicholson SuperCarps thecleanerframer
*JR; Thats a great price for framing a clear spanning,serpentine shaped stair system, I believe you may have misunderstood what I was attempting to descibe, because there will not be any framing except for the bending forms.Ed; I have heard the saying before, but some of my customers are real narrow minded about finacial suprises, and I dont want to leave too much money on the table.Badhabits; I have been redeemed from most of my bad habits, I do still smoke one cigarete a year though. Had experience dealing with a factory stair builder on a previous job and it looked like a whole lot of money for a fair amount of trick work, I cant resist a challenge and will do the job myself, for the benifit of time saved and experience and dollars gained. The 20 thousand dollar price seems to be pretty close to what I was figuring, about 20 percent too low since I will have to bend the handrail for the balustrade. Pecan is a good looking and extremely hard wood that I have used extensively in the past, hung 64 3' 0" x 7'0" x 2 1/4" exterior doors on a custom residence about three years ago, built two staircasesand trimmed out with it and am of the opinion that the very best use in the world for the wood is to smoke a good piece of dead cow with it. Gives a great flavor to the meat.Thanks all,brisketbean
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What to charge for a serpentine open staircase built for a 9 foot rise and about a 12 foot run. The stair is to be open on the bottom with closed tread and risers and soffit. The stairs is to have a mixture of wood and wrought iron ballusters and to be constructed out of pecan to be matched to the antique walnut newell posts and ballusters that were purchased at auction. Anyone have pricing experience for such a job as this?
Brisketbean
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brisketbean,
I hope you have fun building the staircase. They can be fun and frustrating at the same time. We'd like to see some pictures of the work as it goes up if possible.
The saying is "If you have to ask, you can't afford it". A free standing pecan circular staircase is not for the faint of budget. I hope 20K will be enough. At $1500.00 a staircase you might consider flying JRNichlson in to do the framing for you. I couldn't do it for that.
Good Luck,
Ed. Williams
(P.S. - put some money in there for more clamps)