Saturday, April 21, 2012

Options for staircase materials

By Carly Hardman


Picking out materials for your staircase can be an interesting experience. You may have assumed you'd just have a wooden staircase, but when you start to explore your options, you find there are lots of them, and it can be interesting to consider other materials. The most common choice is wood, and it's a good choice! There is little to criticize about it as it is versatile, durable, and goes with anything.

Stone staircases are a popular choice for those designing their own home and trying to achieve a real classic look and feel. Stone offers a variety in colour and texture and simply looks gorgeous. Stone staircases in the home are quite an ordeal to construct and support though, and many times people actually use concrete to construct the staircase, and then use the stone as a cladding material. It really lends luxury to the interior of a home.

However Stone is an even better choice for outdoor staircases. If you are designing an outdoor patio or garden, then stone is a perfect choice. As well as being beautiful, stone stairs are durable, resistant to moisture and pests, and easy maintainable.

Brick is another great choice for staircases. It can also be cladded with stone indoors helping it to look luxurious, but unfinished it also looks fabulous if you are going for a rugged look. It is a very cost effective option as well. Brick also works very well outside and looks great against the backdrop of green in a garden.

Metal staircases can save space and be practical but are certainly not very nice looking. However a more unusual choice for a staircase material is glass. Durable glass can be used for staircases and it can look quite exquisite and modern, but on the other hand, it can be very difficult to clean and keep looking nice. Also similar to the hard material used for kitchen worktops, hard materials that look and feel like stone and are easy to work with are starting to be used for staircases.




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