From: Jennifer Ramage
To: info
Subject: Staircase design dilemma
Dear Mr. Wolf,
I am currently building my first house, and I am completely distraught over a design decision I have to make. Would you be willing to offer your advice? Your work is amazing, and I would be honored if you could take a moment to give your thoughts.
I have attached two photos of my current stair railing above. I am unhappy with both. My house is a two-story Mediterranean style home with a clay tile roof and stucco exterior. The staircase, when completed, will have talavera tile on the risers and Saltillo on the tops. I live only two miles from Mexico (in Texas), and because of my location I really wanted a design that reflected local culture. Instead, because of decisions my builder made without consulting me, I am faced with the choice of a railing that ends one step shy of the bottom of the staircase, or with something that I’m concerned looks “tacked on” and out of place.
Because of the spindle spacing, the only solution I have been able to come up with is to add one spindle to the outside of each end of the middle section, stretching the length there while keeping the first and third sections on the staircase the same length. This would get rid of the “tack on” while bringing the rail to the bottom.
My builder is extremely irate about taking the railing down and redoing it, and now I’m not even sure that the solution described above will look right. My budget is fixed and I have to work with what I have to make this palatable. Do you have any suggestions?
Thank you so much for your time.
Sincerely,
Jennifer
Vicente Responds:
I’m not a person that believes in sets or everything matching. So the shape of the steps is so clean looking, very much in the Barragon style and that railing just has nothing to do with the rest of it. It’s pseudo antique…So if one has to stay with what’s there, what choice is there?
Glass would have been great so you could just see the shape of the tread and the riser. Wrought iron with movement to it would work well. If this was my house I would replace the railing. If you cannot do that at this time, I figure you will have to live with it for a while. Sorry I couldn’t be of more help.
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#1 by mandy on October 14, 2009 - 9:23 am
I’m not sure about the building code where you live but that railing ending shy of the last step is probably not code-compliant. If that is the case you have a legitimate reason to ask your builder to fix his mistake at his cost. This doesn’t solve the problem of the style being out of place but it will at least make the railing structure look correct.
#2 by Angie on October 14, 2009 - 10:19 am
Whatever you decide, I would definitely get the something to the bottom step. We (on purpose) put the newel post on the second to last step because I saw it in a magazine and I thought it looked great (against my builders suggestion.) We have had at least one person miss the last step and fall and I have almost missed it a few times too. I would never do this again…..
#3 by Kammy Kenman on October 14, 2009 - 2:57 pm
These are always tricky situations when a contractor/builder says that “this is your only option”. See if there is anything else that you can compromise on that’s not as visible to affect the budget and change the rail now. Once that rail is in you will never change it-too much to undo.
Start scouring the magazines for ideas and present them to your builder-make it a win win and feed his ego. You might have offer to do the leg work to see if you can sell the rail or if it can be returned…there is always a solution.
Good Luck….
#4 by Carl on October 14, 2009 - 8:52 pm
Ok, call me crazy but could you not in fact have the railing painted a bronzy copper color to soften it much like the walls and give it a little more age and or character ? And maybe at the first step add a decorative wood column of sorts with the metal railing continuing from the metal column to the wood column again to give the railing character. Perhaps you could even replace the last column at the top of the stairs with a wood column finishing the look ? Good luck, be well and enjoy !
#5 by Christine Hale on October 15, 2009 - 1:12 pm
I agree that you need to replace the rail now vs thinking you will do it later. It is going to be much harder once the house is finished. It seems that it may look too busy once you get the tile in, so a simpler rail would work nicely…maybe you could sell that rail and a simpler one may be less expensive.
#6 by jenny on November 27, 2009 - 7:52 pm
Check hacienda style dot com, the folks in wimberly whose deal in the mexican antiques. I suggest a 1 x 10 with some kind of shape cut out, like an urn or something, kind of rustic. That would be typical for the southwest good luck. It could be painted or not.