The staircase is the most looked-at floor in the house. What hardwood stairs cost comes down to a handful of decisions, and most of them are made before anyone picks up a saw. Here's how we think about pricing hardwood stairs for Tantalus Floors clients in Whistler and Squamish: what moves the cost, how to match stairs to the floor, when refinishing beats new treads, and how to keep a staircase safe in a house full of ski boots.
As a broad guide, stair work runs roughly $75 to $500+ per step*. The low end is refinishing existing wood treads. The high end is capping a staircase in new hardwood with a premium species, wider steps or more detailing. It's a guide, not a quote. Materials, availability and site conditions move it, and we quote after a site visit.
Where your job lands in that range depends on four things:
Treads carry the cost. They take the wear, they need to be solid hardwood, and they're the part you see from above. Risers are usually simpler work. Nosings are where cheap work shows first: a solid nose that's glued and fastened properly costs more than a shortcut, and it's the difference between a stair that stays quiet and one that chips at the edge within two winters.
A closed staircase, with the treads tucked between walls or skirt boards, hides its ends. An open stringer, or an open-riser design, leaves end grain and edges in plain view. Every exposed face has to be milled and finished to be seen, and thick floating treads take longer to fabricate.
Converting a carpeted staircase is usually done by capping: the carpet comes off, the structure is checked and corrected, and new hardwood treads and risers are fitted over it. The variables are what's under the carpet and how far the old stairs are from level and square. Scribing each piece tight to the drywall is where a good capping job earns its price.
Species and step width affect material cost directly. Handrails, newels and skirt boards often want staining or refinishing at the same time, and folding that into one visit is usually cheaper than coming back.
Match the species and grain first, then the stain, then the sheen, and do all three on the real materials in your own light.
The best match comes from the same species and grain character as the floor, ideally from the same supply run. As a supplier-installer, we can mill treads from the same material that's going down on the floor.
If the floor is engineered, the stairs still need solid treads (or purpose-made stair components) colour-matched to the engineered field. Engineered plank bent around a stair nose won't hold up. It's the corner most often cut in low quotes.
Stain is sampled on site, on offcuts of the actual treads, under the home's actual light. A colour that looks right on a sample card can read very differently in a room's own daylight. If you're colouring the floor and stairs together, our hardwood staining work is done in the same pass so the two read as one surface.
Sheen is the part people forget. A factory-finished floor has a set colour, bevel and UV-cured sheen, and a site-finished stair has to answer all three on purpose. A tread the right colour but glossier than the floor looks wrong from the hallway every day.
If the existing treads are solid hardwood and structurally sound, refinishing is usually the better value. It typically takes 1 to 2 days plus cure time, and the treads can be re-stained to match a newly refinished floor. New treads make sense when the stairs are carpeted, built from a material that was never meant to show, or when the floor going in next to them is a different species.
A few signs point toward refinishing:
And a few point toward capping or new treads:
A typical capping job runs 2 to 4 days on site plus fabrication lead time. Either way, the stairs can often be done half-width at a time so they stay usable. If you're unsure whether your floors are due as well, 5 signs your hardwood floors need refinishing is a useful check.
Keep the rises consistent, the nosings secure and the finish sheen low enough for traction, then choose a finish you can recoat between seasons. Corridor stairs take boots, wet socks and grit.
Gloss looks sharp in photos and feels slippery in socks. We finish treads with the same hard-wearing finishes we trust on floors.
The nose takes the hardest hits from boots on the way down. A solid nose, properly glued and fastened, stays put. Consistent rise heights matter as much as the wood: an uneven step is what catches people, especially in the dark of a rental they don't know.
For nightly rentals and chalets, we spec finishes that can be recoated between seasons instead of sanded back, which keeps downtime short. A loose tread in a rental is worth fixing early.
Commercial stairs work the same way, on a tighter clock. At Scandinave Spa Whistler, the main stairs and three flights in the massage pavilion were refinished on night shifts in Jacobean stain under matte Bona Traffic HD, ready for guests each morning. At Aperture 1, Whistler employee housing, we finished 114 stairs to match the building's floors.
For the floor itself, see how to choose flooring for a Sea to Sky home.
Refinishing is usually cheaper, the low end of the per-step range. It only works when the existing treads are solid hardwood in sound condition. Carpeted or damaged stairs generally need capping instead.
Yes, with solid treads or purpose-made stair components coloured to the engineered field. The factory sheen and colour have to be matched on site, not guessed.
Usually, yes. Open designs show every face and end, and thick floating treads take more fabrication. Closed stairs hide edges behind walls or skirt boards, so there's less finished surface to produce.
A low sheen chosen for traction rather than shine, since gloss is slippery in socks. For rentals, pick a finish that can be recoated between seasons rather than sanded back.
Choose stair and floor stain together. Sample the stain on offcuts of both the floor and the treads in the room's own light, so the colour and sheen agree once everything is finished.
Send us a photo of your stairs and the floor they need to match through our contact page.
Tantalus Floors, Squamish shop
72-1188 Main Street
Squamish, BC V8B 0P7
604 902-6177 · Monday to Sunday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
*Prices are estimates only. Contact us for current pricing.
