Exterior · Expertise
Railings & Staircases
The hardest thing in the building to fake.
Balustrades and staircases where the structure and the ornament are the same thing.
A staircase is the one element a visitor experiences with their whole body. It is also the element where fabrication error is most obvious: a rising handrail that wanders, a baluster spacing that drifts, a glass channel that is not quite parallel.
Curved and helical work is measured and set out from the actual site rather than the drawing, because the two are rarely identical. Handrails are formed on our pipe bending machine to a consistent radius, and the joints are dressed until the run reads as one continuous piece.
The bronze-clad helical stair on this page is a good illustration: the soffit had to be a single unbroken surface, which meant every panel was developed, formed and welded to the true curve rather than approximated in facets.
The handrail is the whole staircase
People experience a staircase through their hand. The rail is what they hold, what they feel on every step, what tells them the building is well made. A continuous formed handrail that flows through a turn without a visible joint is the hardest single element on most stairs, and the one that most decides how the whole thing is judged.
The rest is geometry that has to be right before anything is made. A helical or curved stair is set out from the building, not from a drawing of the stair, because the structure it lands on is never exactly where the drawing said. Measure, model, then make.
How it is built
Where it is used
- Helical, spiral and curved staircases
- Metal-and-glass balustrade systems
- Cast and ornamental balustrade panels
- Continuous formed handrails
- Cantilevered tread supports and stringers
- Terrace, courtyard and balcony railings
Photographs
Railings & staircases we have made
From the workshop and from finished interiors. Click a picture to see it larger.
Applications
Where it goes
Product catalogue
Railings & Staircases: what we make
Questions & answers
Questions about railings & staircases
Can a handrail be made without visible joints?
Around a turn, that is the hardest thing on a staircase and the thing that most decides how it is judged. A continuous rail is formed in sections that are joined, dressed and refinished so the joint disappears under the hand as well as to the eye. Where the geometry is helical it is set out from the building as built, not from the drawing, because the two are never quite the same.
Glass balustrade or metal — how do you choose?
By what the stair is for. Glass disappears and lets a stair read as a sculpture; it also shows fingerprints, needs its own fixings and cannot carry a handrail on its own. A metal balustrade — cast panels, bars, a formed screen — is the stair’s character and carries the rail naturally. Many stairs use both: metal where hands go, glass where eyes go.
More exterior work
Often specified together
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Have something extraordinary in mind?
Send a drawing, a sketch, or a photograph of something close to it. We will tell you what is buildable, what it costs and how long it takes.