Prefabricated Stairs - Read Before You Buy A Prefab Stair!

If you ask a contractor that, he'll tell you "A prefabricated staircase is a single manufactured unit made up of stair treads and risers fitted onto prefabricated stringers of concrete or metal and finished with wooden panelling to provide for access to entrances."

While that is technically correct, it does little to explain the nuances that are involved in choosing a set of prefabricated stairs and the reasons why you should be using them instead of anything else. So if you were to ask them the same question over a couple of beers, the answer would be to the tone of "Stairs which are made off-site [usually in factories] and are brought over to be installed in your home, much like a lampshade are called prefabricated stairs."

Much simpler, wasn't it?

This is a question best answered by the logistics of where the stair needs to be installed and if for some reason a skilled carpenter's presence is required at the install site. These could be situations where a stair needs to be fitted into the corner of a room while ti is undergoing re-modeling or something of that nature. Think of it this way though, when you order a set of pre-fabricated staircases, you give them all the requisite measurements and instructions for how the stair needs to look like. Isn't that custom enough?

The only situation where I would suggest you consider hand-built custom stairs is if you're restoring an old home and need to replicate that antique look without tearing through half of your wall bringing stairs in.

When someone tells you that their stairs were 'site built' it means that a carpenter built that stair on the construction site. They would have measured and cut the wooden slats for the stairs and the stringers would have been set up right there. I know you're thinking that this seems like a time consuming process, and I assure you, it is. It takes two carpenters anywhere from 10 to 12 hours working together to install one flight of stairs assuming they have had the slats that make the stair cut and ready before hand. If the same care that goes into measuring the wooden slats were to be exercised when measuring the dimensions of the location where the prefabricated stair is to be installed, the chances of a mess-up at the time of delivery are impossible.

If your carpenter has experience installing prefabricated stairs then you can expect to have the job done at half the cost compared to having stairs built on-site. You don't have to worry about design and style options either since anything that can be made on site can be made better and cheaper in a stair manufacturing facility. Some manufacturers even use laser guided systems to put their welds in place when working with metal frames for these stairs – try doing that at home!

Now that we're done with the basics, lets move on to how prefabricated stairways are designed. While the process is slightly different for the many kinds of prefab stairs that are manufactured out there, the way circular stairs are denied is from the inside out – that is the column is created first and the spiral stair is built around it. The treads are then attached along with the railing and the bolsters at the end – all of the above parts are mortised which means that they are made in such a way that they all lock into each other which makes for an extremely strong and stable structure.

A set of prefabricated staircases made by professionals will be glued and nailed together in a very cohesive way. Also, many firms that engage in the manufacture of these stairs give you the choice of laying out velcro on the treads which allows you to easily change the carpeting on the stairs any time your heart desire; quite a clever solution to the whole "renovating stairs every 2 years" problem don't you think?

If you begin grouping them by shape or size, then the answer would probably lie in some thousands but if you group them by application then prefabricated stair types pretty much boil down to two kinds – interior and exterior prefab stairs. This is the kind of distinction I prefer myself because it allows you to choose what stair would be the best suited for your needs with just a couple of my thumb rules. Infact, I'm so confident of them I'll give you just one and I guarantee that it will get you out of any dilemma you are in.

If it is to be put outside, get the stair made out of steel or aluminum and if it needs to be installed inside get it done up in wood. Now there is no reason you can't mix and match the two. Many prefab stair manufacturers will use metal of some kind to strengthen the stairs that you plan on installing in your living room and wood when treated properly makes for great treads for anything that you'd put outside. However, follow this rule and you'll save a lot of time and money trying to make an informed decision on what your stair gets constructed out of.

Honest to god and quick to read answer?
Anything that you want it to look like!

That is the great thing about prefabricated stairs, you can order yours to look like pretty much anything you want it to. Infact there are some designs that are extremely difficult to do when using traditional stair building methods but with the strength and the flexibility of both the materials and the process used to make a prefabricated stair, you can get any kind of L-shaped or spiral stair that your want. One of my friends has what he calls a 'hydra stair' in his restaurant – which means one set of stairs branches out like a tree to reach the various floors of his establishment.

• The Home Owner

Instead of having to run around making sure that your contractors or their carpenters are getting the work done on your stairs, you get them delivered as soon as humanly (and machin-ly) possible. No more delays or worrying about what to do with all the material that gets wasted if a carpenter gets the measurements or the cuts on the wood wrong. Also, with quicker deliveries and a price that would be the fraction of what you'd pay for anywhere else, why would you wait to pick the phone up and just call the best prefab stair manufacturer that you can find?

• The Stair Designer

A prefabricated stair really lets your work shine through. Your work is no longer subject to the constraints that a carpenter's skill or the laws of physics (atleast some of them) would hold on that stair that you've always dreamt of building.

• The Builder or Contractor

You just have to work on getting the stairs installed without having to put your crew through making the second most difficult piece of furniture that they will have to build. Focus you energies getitng other things done that give you a far better ROI. Prefabricated exterior stairs and their interior counterparts truly are your salvation on this one.

While I wish I could answer this one for you, in the spirit of honesty I can only tell you about why I do all my stair purchasing and ordering online.

1. The billing and ordering process is immediate.
2. Most manufacturers have an online chat system to help me through the ordering process.
3. I can request someone to come home to take the measurements for me.
4. I can check out a company's reputation, history and see samples of stairs that they've built for other clients on their own website.
5. And last but not the least, I can verify a company's claims online by reading reviews and testimonials left by other customers. 

Finding the best, simplest and most elegant way of getting a fix on the kind of prefabricated stairs that you would want to install. We cover the whys, hows and the how to's of this game. The research for this article has been sourced from my personal experiences installing prefabricated stairs for myself and helping friends over the years as well as a short interview I did with my favorite carpenter, Chuck Lee James. I'd appreciate feedback from anybody interested in the prefab stair industry or a home owner looking for some advice.

Feel free to ask any questions in the comments. I'll be glad to help you out.