Sensational Wood Interiors

A beautiful stair and balustrade for this new home! The risers and stringers will be painted white while the treads, nosing, newels and top rail will be stained and urethaned to match the floor. Since this is a floating floor (click type), the extra wide custom made nosing overlaps it thereby allowing the floor to expand and contract through the seasons. For more information visit http://sensationalstairs.com or call us at (613-453-7940).

A handrail spanning a balcony defines an area that can be used as a relaxing sitting area or as an office that offers, both, a feeling of openness and a great view to the room below or out a bank of windows! Find out more about our stairs and handrails at www.sensationalstairs.com or call us today at 613 453 7940.

This customer wanted a rustic feel to the stair in their home so I suggested wormy soft maple (also known as ambrosia maple). Once they saw a sample of the wood they were on board they loved this highly figured wood! We used open risers to let the light through, solid 1 thick treads and stringers for rigidity, a handrail with plain square balusters, in keeping with the simplicity of the clean faced newels. A landing was needed at the foot of the stair so we circumscribed it with wormy maple nosing and then clad the sides and deck with the same wood. This highly figured wood stair case became the focal point of their home! To find out more about our stairs and handrails visit our web site http://sensationalstairs.com or call James at 613-453-7940.

This red oak stair and handrail have been finished with a dark stain that reveals a nice contrast within the grain of the wood. Some stains offer a consistency in colour while others offer more contrast and its a good idea to try a few stains on some hardwood scraps (that we can provide) to check not only for colour, but for grain appearance as well. A job well done by the painter. A lot of customers also like these balusters simple (and easy to dust), yet elegant. Find o...ut more about our products and services at http://sensationalstairs.com (Or you can go directly to our stairs page http://sensationalstairs.com/wp/stairs-2/ or to our handrail page http://sensationalstairs.com/wp/handrails/ ) See more

Blotching occurs when a wipe stain is applied and the wood takes the stain unevenly. This article discusses why blotching occurs when staining some woods and it offers suggestions of how to minimize this effect, such as pre stain conditioning. Talk to your painter or talk to your paint supplier about whether you need a conditioner for your stair or handrail and, if so, what to use and how to use it. And do a trial run with some scraps to be sure that the technique you are using works for you, as well as to ensure that you are getting a reasonable colour match with your stain. www.sensationalstairs.com

Stair Resurfacing (sometimes referred to as stair capping) after the carpet was removed from this stair we resurfaced it in red oak to make it look like a hardwood stair! We make our own solid hardwood tread covers in our shop so they can be custom made to fit your stair including pie shaped winders, volute treads and curved stair treads. Find out more about our resurfacing option at http://sensationalstairs.com/wp/resurfacing/ or call me (613 453 7940) if you have any questions.

To continue the theme of white ash used for their flooring, this customer asked us to make a custom white ash handrail. Sometimes red oak is mated up with white ash for the handrail, mainly due to the availability of red oak components (or the lack of availability of ash components) but, while the two woods are similar in the broader grain pattern, red oak is quite busy a lot of smaller features within the grain, while ash has a fairly clean appearance. There is also a marked colour difference - white ash being white, while red oak is (not surprisingly) reddish. To me, the darker the woods are stained, the less noticeable these differences become. I also like these balusters. While the feature is a little larger, it doesnt overpower when placed in sets of three. www.sensationalstairs.com

A solid knotty pine stair and handrail for this new home! For knotty pine newels I usually recommend clean faces (no panels), since the knots are the feature that you want to see. I then make the skirts at the bottom a bit longer to maintain a balanced perspective. Theres nothing like pine (or even wormy soft maple) to give a rustic, warm feel to your home or cottage. www.sensationalstairs.com

A lot of people inquire about stairs with painted risers and stringers, like in this new installation. It does give a fresh clean look. For the newels, the caps can either be painted like these or they (and the collar mould below it) can be kept as hardwood and stained to match the top rail. This customer chose square balusters with chamfered edges that give a softer, more open feel to them. www.sensationalstairs.com

The stair for this 19th century limestone farm house renovation used hard maple treads and balustrade while the stringers and risers were to be painted; so we used poplar for the stringers and paint grade maple veneer plywood for the risers. In keeping with the ornate appearance of the original handrail the customer went with 4 box newels (with skirt, panel and collar mould), 1 pin top balusters and Lambton top rail. To improve night time visibility the customer incorporated low voltage LED lights into the side of the stringers (protected by green tape in the photo). visit www.sensationalstairs.com

This beautifully finished open riser maple stair allows much light to pass through from the windows above to the basement below - a good argument for an open riser stair, in the right circumstances. This customer preferred to have newels with clean faces (as opposed to routered panels) so, for these, I usually make the skirts a little taller to give the top and bottom portions a more equal balance. Because these satin black metal balusters are much slimmer than wooden balusters, they allow more light to pass through, offering a very open feeling, and this is especially noticeable at oblique angles. To learn more about our stairs and handrails go to www.sensationalstairs.com .

I have experienced this phenomena before, usually after wood has passed through the planer (a good hint that those blades are getting dull and need changing!). Its interesting that raised grain stems from a seasonal variation in hardness of the tree rings that develops as the tree grows. And equally important, to know that the solution, in the shop, is to maintain sharp tools and sandpaper!

Wormy soft maple - domestically grown, exotic character! All of the wood components for the stairs, handrails and nosings in this home were custom made in our shop. The characteristic elongated streaks seen in wormy maple are created when beetle larvae, which infest soft maple trees such as red maple or silver maple, leave coloured deposits that are then eluted (with sap) up and down the tree. Natures artform!

I have posted a new Blog to my web site in which I touch on the utility of having a winder in a stair, versus a landing. Hope you can check it out! http://sensationalstairs.com/wp/stairs-2/

No end joints or angle joints in this maple winder stringer! Using full length boards that are carefully glued together, we manufacture a stringer where the wood grain has continuity along its length, as well as uniform orientation across its entirety. Thats just how we make them! See more at http://sensationalstairs.com/wp/stairs-2/

Pretty nifty! Remove the lignin from wood and you are pretty much left with colour-less cellulose fibers. By impregnating the porous voids between these fibers with a material that has the same refractive index as cellulose, light is able to pass straight through it. Wood becomes transparent!

Sometimes even little jobs can add character to room. This customer needed a single step between two levels so, rather than simple square treads, they chose a red oak step with swept ends that fold into the wall. Complete with curved moulds under the tread, the riser and nosing at top were made wide enough to provide a base for the casing, once installed.

This home renovation included a new red oak stair and handrail. While the customer liked the grand look of the box newels, they also preferred wooden balusters (rather than metal balusters), so they chose a Traditional baluster with a simple, yet elegant, taper. www.sensationalstairs.com

This red oak handrail with 3/8 glass panels offers a secure, clean, open feel for this home. The laminate flooring was cut in place and nosings wide enough to accommodate the handrail were manufactured and installed. The customer liked a simple, clean look so we used smooth faced 4 1/2" box newels and a rectangular handrail. Smooth, continuous silicone beads were achieved using a powered caulking gun. www.sensationalstairs.com

All components for this custom birch stair and handrail were manufactured by us in our shop, including all of the handrail components, stair components, support post and moulds, making it a unique installation for this customer! Under the balcony, rather than using a jack post and cladding it, we made a solid birch post that was milled using a design that was reflective of the box newels. The use of birch veneer plywood along the face of the balcony, visually, yields a thick base to the guard rail and helps to balance out the larger volume of wood in the stair at the right. A nosing, undercut to accept laminate flooring, was manufactured wide enough to accommodate the rather large newel posts! www.sensationalstairs.com

Check out my new blog post! In it I try to address some questions that I get from people about handrail requirements according to the Ontario Building Code. Check our web site periodically for new posts. www.sensationalstairs.com

This winder stair made from solid knotty pine fits in nicely against the pine planking being applied to the walls. Double cast metal balusters add interest to the guard rails without appearing too busy. A very nice renovation, once completed! www.sensationalstairs.com

This hard maple stair and handrail replaced an outdated, squeaky stair. The original stair and handrail were removed, as was a wall that was built underneath the stair. To open up the hallway and basement entrance the wall was replaced with a guardrail, to good effect. The newel post half way along the stair not only supports the handrail, it also solidifies the unsupported stringer making the stair very solid. The full height support column at the rear was a nice design element chosen by the homeowner. For more info visit us at www.sensationalstairs.com

A good example of a utility stair that runs between walls, it has pine treads and stringers, G1S plywood risers. While these are not a finished grade of pine stair, they are satisfactory enough that the customer plans to stain and urethane them. The image of the underside of the stair shows the treads and risers wedged and glued, blocking glued in place and the rear of the tread glued and fastened (both means to support the tread), construction adhesive sealing the small gap between the riser and tread at the top and the stringers screwed to the wall. When this is all done the stair installation becomes very solid. Check us out at www.sensationalstairs.com