Stairs & Railings
Custom Stair Installation in Northern Liberties, Philadelphia
Treads, risers, stringers and skirt board, built to a drawing instead of a catalog page. In Northern Liberties, Philadelphia the median home dates to 1997 and 30.7% of the housing predates 1940, which changes what Deco Hardwood Floor expects to find before the work starts.
Stairs in houses from different decades
In Northern Liberties one street can hold stairs built by hand in place and stairs assembled from factory parts, and they come apart and go back together differently.
An early stair has treads and risers let into the side boards and wedged from underneath. A later one is usually built on notched framing with the treads fastened on top. We look at the underside, where there is access, to see which you have before saying what the work involves.
Railings follow the same split. Older ones are joined and pinned, later ones are fastened with hardware hidden under plugs, and tightening or replacing them starts with knowing how they were put together.
Before you get a quote
Local codes set the height of the railing and the gap between balusters, and the rules are adopted town by town. We check the one that applies to your address.
How the housing in Northern Liberties compares
Of the 5,483 housing units in Northern Liberties, roughly 1,700 were built before 1940 and approximately 2,200 before 1978.
That makes the housing here newer than the 132 Philadelphia neighborhoods in our data taken together, where approximately 82.8% of 733,961 units predate 1978, and below the 60.5% figure for our whole service area. By the share built before 1940, Northern Liberties ranks 91st of those 132. The full table is published as open housing data.
Within Philadelphia, the oldest housing in our data is in Cedar Park, with a median year of 1925, and the newest is in Kensington, Old, at 1997.
| Place | Median year built | Built before 1940 |
|---|---|---|
| Northern Liberties | 1997 | 30.7% |
| Kensington, Old | 1997 | 25.8% |
| Old City | 1934 | 56.7% |
| Callowhill | 1952 | 47.6% |
| Yorktown | 1983 | 9.1% |
| West Poplar | 1989 | 21.2% |
| Chinatown | 1974 | 20.3% |
For stair work, the pre-1940 share is the figure to watch. Stairs of that age were built in place by hand, and deciding what can stay is the first part of the job.
What is usually under the floor here
Prewar and postwar housing sit side by side, so the right answer changes house to house and sometimes street to street.
Places with this mix were built across a long stretch, and the floors follow. One block holds original strip oak over joists with a thin wear layer left, and the next holds postwar red oak over a plywood subfloor with most of its thickness intact.
That is why we do not quote this kind of address over the phone. The same service can be a straightforward refinish on one side of a street and a restoration decision on the other, and the only way to know is to look at the edge of a board.
Worth knowing here
Additions are the common surprise. A kitchen bumped out in the 1970s often carries a different floor from the rest of the house, and matching the two is its own conversation.
Most of the housing here postdates the federal lead rule
Approximately 39.3% of the homes here were built before 1978, so most addresses fall outside it.
The EPA rule covers paid work disturbing painted surfaces in pre-1978 housing. In newer stock most addresses sit outside it, which simplifies how the work is staged.
It does not change how we sand. Vacuum extraction at the machine is how our equipment runs regardless, because the difference in the room is obvious whether or not a regulation is involved.
How custom stair installation runs
We measure the opening
Every riser, every tread, and how far out of square the whole thing is.A drawing, not a catalog page
The design is drawn and agreed before material is ordered.Material selected
Species matched to the floor where the two meet.Structure corrected
Squeaks, movement and out-of-level risers addressed before anything finished goes on.Treads, risers and skirt fitted
Each piece cut for its own position.Railing and finish
Handrail, balusters and newel posts to code, then finish.
What is included in a custom stair installation
A custom stair installation covers the measuring, the drawing, the material and the fitting of every finished part of the stair. The railing is drawn with the stair. Work on the walls around it, and changes made after the drawing is agreed, are not part of the stair quote.
Included
- Measuring every riser and tread, and how far out of square the opening is.
- A drawing of the stair, agreed with you before material is ordered.
- Hardwood for treads, risers and skirt board, supplied by us and matched to the floor.
- Correcting squeaks, movement and out-of-level risers before finished material goes on.
- Fitting each tread, riser and skirt board, cut for its own position.
- Handrail, balusters and newel posts built to the code adopted locally, then stain and finish.
Not included, or quoted separately
- A firm price before we have measured the stair in person.
- Painting walls or repairing plaster next to the stair. That is not part of the stair quote.
- Changes to the design after the drawing is agreed and material is ordered. Those are quoted again.
- Structural changes to the house around the stair, such as moving a wall or reframing a floor opening.
What changes the price of a custom staircase
The price is set after we measure the stair in person, never before. Three things move it most: how many steps there are, whether the stair is open on one side, and how much of the existing structure has to be corrected before finished material goes on.
| What changes it | How it moves the price | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Number of steps | Every step is a tread and a riser measured and cut for its own position, so more steps means more pieces and more fitting. | A straight flight of fourteen risers is fourteen slightly different treads, not one tread cut fourteen times. |
| Open or closed sides | A stair open on one side needs returned tread ends and a guard with balusters. A stair between two walls needs neither. | On an open side each tread is returned so the end grain does not show, and the balusters are set into the new treads. |
| Condition of the structure | Loose treads, separated risers and uneven step heights are corrected first. How much of that there is shows once the stair is open. | A stair that squeaks on most steps takes more correction than one that is quiet and solid under the carpet. |
| Turns, landings and winders | A straight flight is the simplest geometry. Landings, turns and wedge-shaped winder treads add layout and cutting to every piece involved. | A stair that turns a corner on winders takes longer to draw and fit than a straight flight with the same number of steps. |
| Species and railing design | Tread stock is thicker than flooring and its cost follows the species. The railing adds posts, rail and balusters, in wood or iron. | White oak treads with a wood rail and iron balusters is a different material list from red oak treads between two walls. |
The full method, the equipment and what we will and will not promise are on the service page: Custom Stair Installation.
Also in Northern Liberties
Hardwood Floor Refinishing
Sand the old finish off, repair what needs repairing, and put a new finish down
Dustless Floor Sanding
Vacuum-extraction sanding
Solid Hardwood Floor Installation
Solid wood, nailed down over a wood subfloor
Engineered Hardwood Installation
Real wood over a stable core
Luxury Vinyl Plank (LVP) Installation
Waterproof, quiet, and it does not care about a wet basement
Stair Refinishing
Stairs take more wear per square foot than any floor in the house, and they are sanded almost entirely by hand
Hardwood Floor Repair
Board replacement, weaving in new wood, squeaks, gaps and cupping
Why homeowners hire Deco Hardwood Floor
Deco Hardwood Floor is owner operated: the person who quotes custom stair installation in Northern Liberties is the person responsible for it, and the material comes with the labor in one number.
Material and labor in one number
We buy the flooring direct from the distributor and pass the store price through, so you are not sourcing wood on your own between quotes.
Samples come to your house
Samples and larger offcuts come to you, so the color gets chosen in your own light instead of under a showroom lamp.
Stairs and railings built in house
Treads, risers, handrails and newel posts are drawn and built by our own crew. Most flooring crews subcontract stair work or decline it.
The owner quotes the job
The person who measures your floor is the person responsible for the work. There is no salesperson in between.
Measured before it is promised
Remaining thickness is measured at the edge of a board before we say a floor can be sanded, and no price is firm before we have seen the room.
Told straight, including the limits
Vacuum extraction catches most of the sanding dust and not all of it. We tell you that before the job instead of after.
More about who we are and what we will not claim on the About Deco Hardwood Floor page.
Questions about stair installation in Northern Liberties
We are pulling the carpet off our stairs. Is there hardwood underneath?
Almost never a finished one. What is normally under stair carpet is construction grade lumber that was never intended to be seen. The finished stair gets built on top of it, which is a different job from refinishing.
Can you match the stairs to my existing floor?
Usually, and it gets tested on a sample rather than promised from a species name. Stair treads are thicker stock than flooring and can take stain differently.
How long does a staircase take?
Longer than customers expect, because each piece is measured and cut for its own position. We give you the schedule for your specific stair once it has been measured.
Do you do the railing too?
Yes. Handrail, balusters and newel posts, built to the code as adopted locally.
Can you tell me what my floor needs over the phone?
We can tell you what is likely, and this page is most of that answer. What we cannot do is quote a floor we have not seen, because remaining thickness and what is under the covering both decide the job and neither is visible in a description.
Do you bring the material?
Yes. We buy direct from the distributor and the material lands in the same number as the labor. Samples and larger offcuts come to the house so you choose in your own light.
Stair Installation near Northern Liberties
Send a photo and we will tell you what you are looking at
Custom Stair Installation in Northern Liberties starts with someone reading the house. We quote every job ourselves, with no salesperson in between, and a photo of the floor gets you a straight answer faster than a form does.
