New stair with bullnose starting step
New balusters bolted into the new treads for maximum rigidity
New handrail "over the posts"
Posts "dropped all the way through"
Upper stair
Up to 3rd floor
Down to 2nd floor
From top looking down to 1st floor
1st and 2nd floor hallways
 |
| Decorative stair bracket |
Removing the old
Rail before
Existing stair horses
Here's an
Historic Fraternity House that was in dire need of a makeover, so we gave them a brand new
Reproduction Staircase in
Philadelphia. I don't know how many frat houses you've been in, but some of them look like they've been....really, really well used, shall we say. This stair, like many old stairs, was pulling away from the wall, and many treads were moving significantly when you stepped on them. The handrail was very loose and was compromised severely by the rather small balusters that weren't attached very well originally, and. many of them were missing altogether. Most of the posts were broken as well making for a very scary, loose, handrail. There had been many repairs made to the stair over the years, and none done very well, and they finally decided to bite the bullet and do it right from top to bottom. And, they wanted to duplicate everything, as much as possible. So, I took some samples of the handrail, balusters and posts, and moldings, and took them to my wood turner, and he created new drawings from the existing pieces, and proceeded to make them exactly as they were originally, but we increased the size of the balusters and we used maple instead of poplar to make them much stronger than before, (and less likely to get "accidentally" broken), like so many of the originals. It took the turner a few weeks to reproduce everything, and for the local stair shop to duplicate the treads, risers, and handrail. We then removed everything but the existing stair horses, because they were really solid, and rebuilt the stairs in place with all new oak hardwood. It took about a week to rebuild all the stairs, and about 2 weeks to install the handrail, posts, balusters and moldings. It sounds like the Alumni are thrilled with the end result. They just had their 75th anniversary party, and I'm confident my stair will be still going strong for their 150th anniversary party in about 75 years or so. So, if you want to greatly increase the value of your property, and maintain the
Historic significance of your
Fraternity House, sorority house, your church, your townhouse, or your MainLine mansion, be sure to give Ron Hartman a call @
215-694-5046 to schedule your FREE consultation ($250 value), and to learn all about the options you have for your
Reproduction Staircase project in
Philadelphia, MainLine, Ardmore, Radnor, and surrounding areas.....Ron's email is 45stairman@gmail.com.
