The sheer size of the 1890s Queen Anne-style home in Kenilworth tells approaching guests they are about to visit someplace special. But beyond the double-column porch pillars, under the three wooden carved hearts nestled in the portico eave, and through the quarter-sawn double oak doors, the staircase tell guests they’ve truly arrived.
“Those are the things that greet you and say what the house is,” said homeowner Rick Cooper, 59, an economist. “We’re not trying to impress them. But you want it to be warm.”
Even the stair designer told Cooper and his wife, artist Diana deMeuse, 46, the three-story gleaming oak staircase Diana envisioned was going to be too big for their 8,000-square-foot house, which they moved into in August.
But the couple felt indebted to their new $5-million-plus home’s style. Despite local consternation, they had demolished a dilapidated 1892 farmhouse that was a mish-mash of additions. In its place, they wanted to build a modern characterization of the finest homes of that era, and the stairs were a natural evolution.
“Until we did this, I never would have thought about what it takes to get stairs,” Cooper said
While not everyone is going to spend $95,000 on a set of stairs, as Cooper and deMeuse did, stairs are much more than just access to another floor. The styles, designs and materials available can make a stairway an architectural asset to any home.
Rich Johnson, general manager for Cooper Stair Company Inc., a Mundelein firm that works on about 1,000 stair projects a year, says the right new staircase can add a lot of value to a house. “[A homeowner] may spend $3,000 or $5,000 and add $30,000 or $40,000 [in value].”
You must consider the source when evaluating Johnson’s estimate, but real estate agents agree that the right staircase adds value.
Kari Richardson, a Realtor in Baird & Warner’s Lincoln Park office, has a client in Sheridan Park now replacing an old metal spiral staircase so the house can be sold this spring. “That should bring up the value of the home, at the very least, the amount the staircase will cost her,” Richardson said, estimating the job at between $10,000 and $15,000. “That will be a return on value because many people reject the spirals in this area, particularly if they are the main staircase.”
The first step when replacing a set of stairs is to decide just how important the stair’s style is to the look of a home, said David DeLeeuwe, who designs stairs for Adams Stair Works and Carpentry Inc. in Grayslake. He helped Cooper and deMeuse create their stairway.
“It depends on the real estate the staircase [occupies] in the house,” DeLeeuwe said. A front staircase at a house’s entry provides an architectural introduction to the rest of the house.
A second set of stairs, common in today’s mini-mansions and required in Chicago for any building three floors or more, doesn’t usually require the same design attention as a main stair or entryway.
Typically, a home’s architectural style dictates the look of a stair. Stairs should match details such as moldings and trim, DeLeeuwe said.
“You don’t want to walk into a totally colonial home with a screaming contemporary stair,” he said. “If you never put any furniture in that house, you want [the stair] to look like it belongs.”
For instance, a staircase with rich, squared-off cherry banisters suits a Mission-style home, while glossy, curved banisters complement a Victorian look. Modern stairs typically incorporate some type of metal or metal finish. Glass balustrades–everything from colored, etched, bubbled or mosaic glass–work well for modern or contemporary tropical looks. Stairs reminiscent of the French country style can use paint for farmhouse look.
Not that a homeowner needs to spend a fortune to update their home’s look. Chicago-area stair builders say they spend about 20 percent of their time replacing inexpensive metal railings and balustrades installed in the 1960s and ’70s. It costs between $1,500 and $2,000 for a new wood handrail, wood spindles and a decorative newel post at the end, Adams said.
For a trendier look, about $3,000 will replace the wood spindles with metal in stainless, copper, black or other finishes, Adams said.
The metal balustrades are capped by wood railings, which are much warmer than metal, he said.
“They have the look of the ornamental iron but the look and beauty of the wood too,” he said.
One surprising trend is the resurgence of spiral staircases, many as a home’s second set of stairs, said Doug Adams, owner of Adams Stair, whose 5 installers handle about 1,000 jobs annually. Five years ago, Adams sold three spiral staircases a year. Now he sells three a month.
“The new spirals we’re making are much nicer than the spirals of the ’70s,” Adams said. Instead of clunky rectangular metal railings and balustrades reminiscent of an industrial boiler room, today’s spiral stairs have turned spindles and contemporary handrail profiles, he said.
With all-wood stairs, although oak is still common, homeowners increasingly are requesting more exotic woods.
“People are tired of oak,” Adams said. “They’re turning to a lot of cherries–Brazilian cherry, mahogany, walnut. We’ve seen a big resurgence of American black walnut.”
Other homeowners are tired of another aspect of stairs: creaks. Although some may think a stair’s creak is the song of a home, the noise just annoys others. But that’s a problem that can be fixed, Johnson said.
The most common cause of squeaks in an old stair–1940s and earlier–is the breakdown of “hide glue,” an animal byproduct that disintegrates with age.
Re-gluing an entire staircase can cost between $2,000 and $3,000 plus the cost of plasterwork or drywall replacement on access walls, he said.
A single creaky step can typically be repaired with glue and a few screws, which typically costs between $350 to $450, Johnson said.
“You don’t have to live with it,” Johnson said. “There’s always a solution. It’s just a case of how much do you want to spend to do it.”
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No need to be grounded during staircase installation
Will you have to sleep on the living room couch while your staircase is being replaced?
“You’re going to lose a stair for a full day,” said Rich Johnson, general manager for Cooper Stair Co., in Mundelein. “Typically by the end of the first day–sometimes it goes into the second day–the stair will be walkable.”
Custom stair builders complete most of the work in their shop. They build the basic steps in advance, cutting and gluing together as many pieces as possible, Johnson said. Then, on the day the old staircase is removed, the new set of steps is secured into place.
But walkable doesn’t mean finished. Stair builders use measurements to pre-cut each baluster in the shop. But each one is cut a little long so the stair builder can custom cut the pieces on site for a precise fit.
“We have to leave room for if a wall is out of level or something’s not square,” Johnson said. “That way we can compensate for any of the imperfections.”
Homeowners should expect to hire someone to handle drywall or plasterwork if the stair project affects walls; an electrician if lights, plugs or switches need to be moved; carpet installers to finish covered staircases; and painters for the final stain, paint or varnish finish on the stairs. Those costs are in addition the cost of the stairs themselves.
Homeowners who hire a general contractor to organize the trades can expect to pay about 15 percent of the stair’s worth for the service, Johnson said.
— Tammy Battaglia.
