Controlling Stair Costs

A common question I hear is, "How much does a stair cost?"

The price range of stairs is very large; from a pine boxed stair for a basement — a few hundred dollars — all the way up to an artistic stair for well over $100K.

Start by establishing your stair budget and determine what you want to spend. Typically, stairs cost in the range of 1.5% to 2.5% of your home price. The low end of 1.5% represents a basic trim package. The higher end of 2.5% is custom level trim.

If your goal is to keep your stair costs at the lower end (1.5% of your home price), use styles that are stocked and readily available. Red Oak and Poplar are materials that are likely to be your most affordable options.

Generally speaking the smaller the components the less the cost. If you are making the trim a focal point of your home, and have budgeted 2.5%, you still may need to make some hard decisions to keep within that range. Stairs in custom materials can get costly quickly, due to the high quantity of components that are required in just one stair. Making all those individual parts for one job, adds a lot of labor and cost to the job.

You may need to ask yourself what is more important to you: style or material? You may need to forgo the style you want to keep the upgraded custom material, or go with the style you want in a less expensive material. Designed Stairs has styles categorized for budget by:

• Builder's Choice (stocked, more affordable styles)
• Architect's Choice styles (custom styles or styles that tend to be more costly for various reason)

This makes it easy to focus in a direction to help keep you on budget.