The different wood stair parts and things to consider when buying them

A wooden staircase is suitable for all types of homes, whether your home is traditional or modern. Most types of wood are also easy to paint if you decide to change the look of your wooden staircase. This section will cover the different types of wood that are commonly used for stair parts, the wood stair parts we offer and things to consider when buying them.

The different woods for stair parts

How much does it cost to replace wood stair parts?

You can read about the prices you can expect to pay when replacing wood stair parts in our stair parts price list.

Softwoods, such as pine, tend to be cheaper than hardwoods such as oak and ash. This is, in part, due to softwood being much quicker to grow than hardwood, so the wood is more readily available. White oak stair parts tend to be the most expensive.

Should I use hardwood or softwood stair parts?

Deciding on whether to use hardwood or softwood for your staircase depends on your preference of the appearance of woods, your budget and other preferences.

The following woods are divided into hardwoods and softwoods:

Hardwoods

• White oak
• Walnut
• Sapele
• Ash
• White primed wood like birch or poplar

Softwoods

• Pine
• Hemlock

The benefits of softwood

Softwoods such as hemlock can be easily painted, allowing you to choose the finish of your choice for your décor. Softwoods such as pine can be grown in a variety of locations, which makes the wood more readily available and more affordable than hardwoods.

The benefits of hardwood

Hardwoods tend to be more durable than softwoods, so are less likely to dent and scratch or show other signs of wear and tear. Hardwoods are an excellent long-term investment and provide a high-quality look.

The wooden stair parts we offer

Here is a guide to the different wooden staircase parts we offer:

Spindles

Our timber spindles are designed made from ash, hemlock, dark hardwood, pine, walnut, white oak and white primed wood.

You can shop our full range of wooden spindles here.

Recommended products:

You can read more about how to fit spindles in our guide to spindles.

 

Choosing wooden spindles

You should take into consideration whether your staircase is closed string or cut string. The strings on a staircase are the sides which the treads and risers are housed onto. In a closed string staircase, the spindles are fixed to a base rail at the bottom and a handrail at the top. In a closed string staircase, the edges of the steps will be hidden.

In a cut or open string staircase, the side profile of the steps will be visible or even overhang the string. As the stair treads and are risers exposed, the spindle sits directly on the stair tread. For this style, you will need two spindles on each tread. The front spindle should be 900mm long and the back spindle 1100mm.

Styles of wood spindles

Styles of wood spindles include barley twist, colonial, fluted, square, plain turned, provincial, stop chamfered and square twist.

You can view our range of stair spindles to see which style you prefer.

Base rails and handrails

You can choose either grooved or ungrooved base rails or handrails, depending on the type of stair spindles you are attaching to them.

Our base rails are available in ash, dark hardwood, hemlock, white oak, pine, white primed and walnut.

Our handrails are available in pine, white primed, hemlock, dark hardwood, white oak, ash and walnut.

Choosing base rails and handrails

Grooved handrails contain a groove designed to fit in a wooden spindle accurately. If you are using metal spindles, you can choose base rails and handrails with smaller grooves intended for metal. You can shop our range of grooved handrails and base rails here. For glass panels, you can purchase an ungrooved wood handrail or base rail and connect these with a glass bracket. You can shop our range of ungrooved wood stair handrail parts and base rails here. You can alternatively use glass grooved handrails and base rails for attaching glass panels.