Wednesday, October 06, 2004
Staircases
We spent most of the day shopping for a new staircase for to replace the old one I removed from Poire. I trip to Rennes to a large builders merchant that makes made-to-measure staircase took most of the morning. The gap between the beams for the hole up to the first floor is 62cm, rather than 70cm+ for a standard width off the shelf staircase and the floor to floor height is 20cm higher than standard. Nothing is regular in an old building.
The assistant entered details into the computer package in the shop, floor height, opening width etc. but the key measurement for us was the length of the staircase downstairs. The further back the bottom step is from the top step the more shallow the angle and consequently the more comfortable the stairs are. We wanted something more comfortable as the old stairs were quite steep. We also preferred to have risers, i.e. not open treads, so this also meant a more shallow angle to increase the depth of the tread. With open tread staircases your foot can stick through each step. After choosing various handrail and balastrade styles we came away with a couple of quotes, one for the stairs in pine and another in exotique hardwood.
In the afternoon a different staircase salesman came to call. He arrived with various measuring sticks, brochures and samples to tempt us. We went through the same choices again, but we also had to choose the number of steps we wanted. The computer decided in the shop, but in this case, it was up to us. As with everything it's a trade-off. More steps means less height between each tread, BUT the depth of the tread reduces. Less steps means deeper treads but a greater rise (and fall). A bit of head scratching and measuring of other staircases we came up with one less tread than the computer, but consequently slightly deeper treads, which we felt added more to the comfort. They worked almost exclusively in oak, so the quote was for the new stairs in oak. Amazingly it was only 100 euro more expensive than the hardwood version from the morning and oak looks beautiful.
We have got another chap coming tomorrow to give us another quote, then we can decide.
I never realised it was so complicated, and it's going to get even more complicated with the next two staircases (both with two quarter turns) in the new gites.
| 7:37:08 PM
Staircases
