Building stairs out of wood?

[Al Willits]

Just got a cement bid to redo the stairs to the front of the house...5k..:eek:

It was suggested it'd be cheaper to do in wood, any suggestions as I think I might try this myself.
Codes I can find from our city office, but....
What kind of wood?
Things to watch for?
Possible plans to follow?
Any suggestions?

tia

Al

[Peter Quinn]

Use a good outdoor species, IPE, cumaru, even good old PT yellow pine will do. You'll still need to pour a little landing. Can you be more specific as to the style of house, height that must be achieved (rise) and any potential obstructions going forward (run). Do the stairs come straight off the house, or will they go sideways? Are they meeting a walkway of some kind? What part of the country are you in (I ask for species suggestions relative to climate and bug conditions). More info might attract more responses and helpful information.

[Richard Wolf]

I agree with Peter about wood choice. I would most likely use Ipe, but under all circumstances, do not go cheap on your wood selection. It is also important to plan a rail system that will match your house style and make it look like a staircase instead of a deck.
Maybe some large box newels with wrought iron balusters.

Richard

[Michael Prisbylla]

Just to be a little contrary, concrete's not that hard to do on your own. Build some forms, have some friends ready when the pre-mix comes and then work your tail off for a while placing & smoothing the concrete. You can save a ton of money that way. I've done steps (having never done them before in concrete) mixing it myself and working alone and found it wasn't so bad.

[Mike Cutler]

Al

Lots of houses in New England have wooden stairs that lead up to them. Personal experience would be to make sure that you pick a species that can hold up too snow removal. IPE would be my choice. The rest of it is personal design and code compliance.

$5K for the concrete work? How big are these stairs going to be? because that sounds like a lot of money for a "standard" stairway entrance, especially if it can be purchased and installed as a precast section.

[Peter Quinn]

Ditto what Mike said about that $5k price. A real wood staircase is a thing of beauty, but I'd have a hard time thinking a well made wooden stair system would come in under the price of a precast concrete unit when all the costs are added up. Last year I poured a basement floor that took 8.5 yards of concrete, I hired a mason to do the pour but did all the site work, excavation and prep myself, still came in under $1500. Concrete is just not that expensive.

My Neighbors had a precast unit installed about two years ago to replace a rotten wooden system. With roughly 36" of rise, the whole thing veneered in stone with iron hand rails, still came in under $5K! You might want to seek more bids on that concrete system if cost is your main objective before committing to wood. My front stairs are concrete, they are 105 years old and still in workable shape, very little maintenance involved.

[jared herbert]

I have a set of 4 wood steps leading up to a small landing, 4 by 5 feet. It is all redwood and has been in heavy use for over 20 years. I am in Iowa so it sees a lot of snow and ice. You have to be a little careful chopping ice off of it but it has held up very well. The only thing to watch is that it gets a little slippery when it gets frost on it. I would do it again. I like the looks of it a lot better than concrete.

[Al Willits]

Thanks all, first bid was a shocker, found a buddy who's neighbor does it and he said 5k must be for some pretty elaborate stairs, not the case in our little home.

He came over and gave us a bid of about $2200 and that was with some extra sidewalk repair, he knew of the first guy and mentioned he only did really big (lots of profit) jobs and ours was to small for him..

For $2200 and considering summers are to short here, not to mention the kitchen cabinets the wife has been not to patiently waiting for, we'll have him do it, I went and looked at his work, pretty nice, much better than I can do with concrete.

Thanks for the help.

Al