Custom Staircase on Cape Cod: Rebuilding an Old Stair

A custom staircase on Cape Cod is built to the house it sits in, and on an older Cape that usually means fixing a stair that was never right to begin with. Most of the stairs we rebuild are steep, narrow and tucked behind a chimney or under a roof pitch, so the job starts with the opening, the headroom and the framing before anyone talks about treads and railings. Coast Carpentry Home Improvement builds and rebuilds custom staircases across Barnstable County, and this is how we decide what a stair needs.

The stair in the photo is one our carpentry crew built at the 84 Alden Drive new construction: oak treads and handrail to match the oak floor, painted risers and square balusters, an oak box newel at the bottom, light set under each tread nose, and shiplap running up the wall beside it. It went in during the interior phase that winter, along with the shiplap and the trim, built by the same crew that framed the house. Fagner Rodrigues, who holds the Massachusetts Construction Supervisor license that every Coast job runs under, looks at every stair opening before we quote it.

Why are old Cape Cod staircases so steep and tight?

Walk into a full Cape in Barnstable Village or along Route 6A in Sandwich and you will often find the same thing: a tiny front entry, the chimney straight ahead, and a stair that climbs the chimney’s flank so steeply that people go up it facing the treads. Those stairs did their job for two hundred years. They were never meant to carry a queen box spring.

The postwar Capes in Hyannis, South Yarmouth and Falmouth have a different problem. Many were built with an unfinished attic, and the stair to it went in later, sometimes by a builder and sometimes by an owner. We open those up and find stringers notched until there is barely any wood left, a landing held up by a single nail line, and a top step that lands under a rafter, so anyone over six feet ducks. When we turn an attic into real living space, the stair is usually the first thing that has to change.

Can an old staircase be rebuilt, or does it have to be replaced?

The first thing we do is pull a riser or open the wall below the stair and look at the stringers. On a lot of Cape stairs that is where the decision gets made. A sound frame means a re-tread job: the old nosings come off, new treads and risers go on, the skirt boards get replaced, and the railing gets rebuilt. It keeps the stair in its spot and keeps the plaster around it intact.

A replacement makes sense when the stair is the reason the house does not work. If it lands under a beam, blocks a hallway, or is so steep that an owner has stopped using the second floor, we move it. That means cutting a new opening in the floor, heading it off properly, and closing the old one, which is framing and drywall work as much as stair work. It is also where an owner’s judgment counts. Some people with an antique stair want it saved because it is the oldest thing in the house, and we will rebuild it carefully and live with its pitch rather than tear out history to gain an inch.

What does the Massachusetts building code require for a new staircase?

Massachusetts writes its own residential code on top of the national model, and the building department in every Cape town enforces it the same way. The numbers above are the ones we check on every stair we frame, along with consistent risers. A stair where one step is noticeably taller than the rest is the stair people trip on, and inspectors measure for exactly that.

Winders are allowed and they are how a lot of Cape stairs turn a corner in a tight footprint, but each winder tread has its own minimum depth at the walk line and at the narrow end. Old winders almost never meet it. When we rebuild a winding stair we usually redraw the turn with a landing or fewer, deeper winders.

The hard case is the antique stairwell that cannot physically fit a modern stair. Massachusetts handles alterations to existing buildings under its existing building code, and the building official decides how far a replacement has to come toward current numbers when the space will not allow full compliance. That is a conversation we have with the inspector before we cut anything, not after.

One thing that does not apply: the Old King’s Highway Historic District reviews what you can see from the street. An interior stair in a Route 6A house is a building permit matter, not a historic commission one.

What should stair treads be made of in a Cape Cod house?

Most of our stairs end up oak because most of the floors they connect are oak. A stair that matches the floor at the top and the bottom reads as part of the house instead of something added to it. We order tread stock wide enough to cut a clean return on any open end, and we let it sit in the house for several days before it is cut, because wood brought straight from a lumberyard into a heated house moves.

Risers, skirts and balusters are usually painted. Poplar is the common choice for painted parts because it machines cleanly and holds paint well. On a summer house with a lot of foot traffic, painted treads look right for about one season and then the nosings go bare. If an owner wants a painted stair in an antique house, we steer them to a runner over it. On a steep old Cape stair a runner is also the best grip you can add.

What keeps a railing and newel post solid?

The most common call we get on an existing stair is a newel that rocks. Usually it was set on top of the floor with a lag screw or two into plywood. The fix is to open the ceiling below or the floor at the base, add solid blocking, and through bolt the post so it cannot pivot. On a new stair we plan the blocking before the subfloor goes down.

A box newel like the one at Alden Drive is built up from boards around a structural post, which lets us size it to the room and make the top cap match the trim in the house. Square painted balusters suit most Cape and shingle style interiors. Turned balusters suit a true antique. The handrail profile matters more than people expect, because a rail you can wrap your hand around is a rail people actually hold on the way down.

How do you add a stair to a dormer or second floor addition?

When we design a shed or gable dormer on a Cape, the stair is one of the first lines we draw. A shed dormer across the back of a Cape often exists mostly to give the stair its headroom and the bathroom its ceiling. If the existing stair is in the wrong place for the new floor plan, moving it is part of the addition, and it costs far less to decide that before the roof comes off than after.

On a new house like Alden Drive the stair can be part of the design from the start. That one rises against a shiplap wall to an open hall at the top, because the stair was drawn with the floor plan instead of fitted in afterward. For bigger projects, our home additions team works out the stair, the dormer and the floor plan together.

Does a seasonal Cape house change how a stair should be built?

Squeaks come from wood rubbing on wood or on a nail. A tread that is only nailed will start talking as soon as the house goes through one dry winter. We glue and screw treads and risers, add glue blocks under the nosings where we can reach them, and keep the skirt boards from being wedged so tightly that seasonal swelling pushes them off the wall.

Older houses add one more step. Paint on a stair in a house built before 1978 is presumed to contain lead, and taking apart a painted stair, sanding a handrail or cutting out a skirt board disturbs it. We follow lead safe work practices on those jobs, which means containment, cleanup and a plan for the old material before the first nosing comes off.

How long does a staircase rebuild take, and what does it cost?

The variables are what is behind the old stair, how much of the opening changes, how much custom millwork the railing needs, and what is in the walls around it. That is why we do not put a number on a stair before we have pulled a riser. Our trim carpentry crew handles the treads, skirts and railing, and our carpentry team handles the framing behind it, so one company carries the job from the opening to the last coat of finish.

A stair rarely gets done alone. Owners often pair it with the interior trim work in the hall around it, or with the custom kitchen carpentry on the floor below, so the oak and the paint colors carry through the house. Our guide to custom carpentry on Cape Cod covers the rest of what our carpenters build.

Frequently asked questions