Wood stairs after COE

Paris167

New member
Hi guys, I need info STAT to decide by tomorrow my cutoff for this decision at DC

I want wood stairs, DC charges $10k just for stairs. I want to do wood stairs after COE but someone mentioned you can't do it or it's hard after COE due to the newels and balisters already being in place??

Anyone here done wood stairs after COE? I was goig to have my contractor pull off the carpet ad place wood on the stairs after. I can't get a hold of him right now so now I'm worried.

Should I do wood stairs through DC?
 
Hi Paris167,

I had my entire house (including stairs) done in wood flooring after COE by Venetian and looks great.  In fact, one of the unsold homes next door was done in wood flooring by the builder(subbed to another contractor) and was not done as nicely.  You can probably have the stairs done for half the price if not less vs. the builder.  Check with Tompkins or Venetian for quotes.  Thanks.
 
Had my stairs done by OC Flooring for less than 10k. Closer to 8k (more like 3.5-5k, just checked my invoice. don't have every item broken out but is approximate). Definitely go outside of DC. You will be there to supervise and oversee the job to make sure it is done to your satisfaction. Everything done through the design center was not up to my standards in almost every case.
 
Check what kind of stairs you have.

Some don't need to remove the balusters to lay wood on the stairs (most I've seen have drywall footing where the balusters are put into).

If that's the case for yours, you can do flooring after.

But you should weigh the difference in cost, if it's negligible (for qwerchete I think that means less than 5 figures) you may want to go with the builder to minimize headaches and having to vet contractors, however make sure you know exactly how the builder is going to implement the flooring because there are stories on TI where the builder doesn't exactly do the most aesthetically pleasing (or knee scraping proof) installations.
 
So, there's lots of variables on how easy or difficult it is to do wood stairs after COE.  IHO is correct, it matters if the staircase is open tread vs knee wall.  Sometimes, open tread (which has balusters directly into the tread) will have the tread cut to have carpet placed in standard setting.  This makes it much harder as the balusters will have to be removed and a new tread placed.  Also, I'm not familiar with your layout, but sometimes newels/balusters are continued onto the 2nd floor as a wrap around.  I would try to get a flooring/stair system company out to give you a quick quote and how easy or hard it is to do everything after COE.  Nothing is impossible, but you might not be saving that much money because the stair system is complicated and has to be up to code.

If you're planning to do flooring after COE and especially if you have newels/balusters on the second floor, just have everything done after and get the exact stair system you want since the design center's stair options are limited.  I'm with Qwerty on this one, the savings of a couple thousand dollars isn't worth it to me to do it after COE.
 
Yes... if you're planning to get a wood different than what is bordering each step, you are going to have issues with the 2nd upper portion.

Edit: Actually... I think these are the pictures of the model. You should ask the builder what does a typical carpet installation look like because that looks like a wood/carpet hybrid that might differ if you just put carpet in your home.
 
@IHO:  It's pretty standard to have the tread cut to accommodate the carpet in an open tread staircase.  I'm guessing that will be what it will look like in a standard configuration.

Paris, I honestly don't know.  Since, only the last few steps are open tread and it doesn't continue onto the second floor, it looks simple.  Get a flooring company out to your model and ask them.  I did that with Tompkins years ago going thru this exact same situation and they told me it would be difficult.  But others on this thread said it wasn't so bad.  Or call a stair company and go over your scenario, I'm sure they get this question all the time.  Good luck.

Btw, love your decision on the wood stairs.  IMHO, gives a classier look to a home and you won't have to deal with the 1st and 2nd stair getting nasty like it always does with carpet.
 
Paris167 said:
thatOSguy said:
Paris167 said:
Hi guys, I need info STAT to decide by tomorrow my cutoff for this decision at DC

I want wood stairs, DC charges $10k just for stairs. I want to do wood stairs after COE but someone mentioned you can't do it or it's hard after COE due to the newels and balisters already being in place??

Anyone here done wood stairs after COE? I was goig to have my contractor pull off the carpet ad place wood on the stairs after. I can't get a hold of him right now so now I'm worried.

Should I do wood stairs through DC?

Wait, you're asking the "experts" of TI? Love the insult followed by the desperate thread.

Some people on TI are actually kind and very helpful unlike the few posters like yourself that just troll on here to provide sarcastic comments and harass people - so move on.

Actually, I don't think OSguy is #category4.  He's actually good people, if a little misunderstood.
Just let the sarcasm roll off your back or, if you want to hit back, hit him where it hurts.  #NPhighdensityhousing
 
Paris167 said:
Thanks for your input

I wanted to post a pic of our stair system - let me know what you think. I foresee the Newels and balusters mainly becoming a problem on the 2nd leg where they are already in place on a few stairs going to the second floor.

I would get quoted from outside contractor.
 
eyephone said:
Paris167 said:
Thanks for your input

I wanted to post a pic of our stair system - let me know what you think. I foresee the Newels and balusters mainly becoming a problem on the 2nd leg where they are already in place on a few stairs going to the second floor.

I would get quotes from outside contractor.
 
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