Steel Staircases & Balustrades York

A steel staircase is one of the few structural elements people actually look at every day. It has to be safe, it has to meet regulations, and on most projects it also has to look right. Ultra Fabrication design, fabricate and install steel staircases, balustrades and handrails across York and Yorkshire, for everything from industrial access stairs to feature staircases in domestic conversions.

Everything is made in our own workshop at Mount Farm, just south of York, and installed by our own team. That matters more on staircases than on almost any other steelwork, because a stair that is 20mm out at the top is a problem you cannot hide.

We work from architect drawings, from a structural engineer's design, or from a site survey and a conversation about what you want. If you have a picture of something you like, that is a perfectly good starting point.

Steel Staircases We Fabricate

Straight flight stairs

The simplest and usually the most cost-effective option where you have the run available. Straight flights work well in warehouses, workshops and open-plan interiors, and can be finished as a plain industrial stair or as a feature with open treads and a glass balustrade.

Dog-leg and half-landing stairs

Where the available footprint is tighter, a half-landing turns the flight back on itself. This is the standard arrangement in most buildings and in a lot of domestic conversions where the stair has to fit a fixed opening.

Spiral and helical stairs

A spiral staircase takes up the least floor area of any option and can be a genuine feature. Helical stairs, curving without a central column, are more involved to fabricate but produce a striking result. Both are firmly in bespoke fabrication territory and both are things we enjoy building.

Industrial and access stairs

Plant access, roof access, platform and walkway stairs, and stairs to mezzanine floors. Usually galvanised, usually with open mesh or chequer plate treads, always built for hard use.

External and fire escape stairs

External steelwork lives outdoors in a Yorkshire climate, so it gets galvanised as standard. Fire escape stairs have their own requirements around width, protection and discharge, and those need confirming with Building Control on a project by project basis.

Balustrades and Handrails

The balustrade is what turns a set of steel treads into a finished staircase, and it is usually where the design decisions get made. We fabricate:

• Mild steel balustrades, painted or powder coated, the most cost-effective and most versatile option
• Stainless steel balustrades and handrails for a brighter, contemporary finish that suits kitchens and commercial interiors
• Steel frames with glass infill panels, where you want the light through and the view kept open
• Vertical bar infill, the standard domestic arrangement and usually the simplest to get compliant
• Tensioned wire infill for a lighter industrial look
• Perforated and laser cut panel infill, cut on our CNC plasma table to a pattern of your choosing
• Wall-mounted handrails, straight or following a curve
• Landing, balcony, terrace and Juliet balcony balustrades

Finishes

All of this is handled through our metal work and finishing service, so the staircase arrives on site finished rather than needing treatment after installation.

Regulations, Dimensions and Getting It Signed Off

Staircases and balustrades are one of the more heavily regulated parts of a building, and the requirements differ between domestic and commercial use. The areas that come up on nearly every project are the rise and going of each step, the pitch of the flight, headroom, handrail height, and the gaps in the balustrade infill.

Those requirements are set out in the Building Regulations and they are enforced by your Building Control officer, so the specification for your project needs to come from them or from your architect rather than from a general rule of thumb. What we can tell you is that we fabricate to the specification given and we have taken plenty of staircases through Building Control sign-off across York, so if something in the design is likely to cause a problem we will flag it before it is made rather than after.

Our EN 1090 EXC2 UKCA certification covers the structural steelwork side. Full details are on the accreditations page.

Staircases for York Homes

A lot of our domestic staircase work in York comes from loft conversions, garage conversions, barn conversions out in the Vale of York, and open-plan renovations where a boxed-in timber stair is being replaced with something lighter. Period properties in the city often have very tight stair openings, and a steel stringer with open treads can free up a surprising amount of light and space compared with what was there before.

We are used to working in occupied houses. That means dust sheets, tidy work, and taking the old stair out and the new one in without wrecking the decoration on the way through.

Commercial and Industrial Work

On the commercial side we fabricate access stairs, platform stairs, walkway systems, plant and roof access, and staircases serving mezzanine decks. Industrial stairs are usually galvanised with mesh or chequer plate treads and a plain but robust balustrade, built to take daily traffic and forklift knocks.

We work regularly with builders and main contractors across York, and we understand programme. If the stair is holding up the follow-on trades we will say so and we will not promise a date we cannot hit.

How the Process Works

1. Call Ryan on 07972 089 013 or send through the drawings you have
2. We visit and survey. Staircases are measured on site, not scaled off a drawing
3. We agree the design, the finish and the balustrade specification, and give you a fixed quote
4. The staircase is fabricated in our York workshop and finished
5. We install, make the connections on site and hand over

Because our own coded welder is on site for the installation, connection adjustments are handled there and then rather than in a second visit.

Areas We Cover

We fabricate and install staircases and balustrades across York, Harrogate, Selby, Tadcaster, Leeds and Wetherby, with wider coverage across Yorkshire listed on our areas we serve page.

Tread and Deck Options

The treads change the character and the cost of a staircase more than almost anything else. The usual options are:

• Open steel treads. Plain plate or folded plate treads, painted or powder coated. Clean, contemporary and the most common choice on domestic feature stairs.
• Chequer plate. Non-slip pattern, hard wearing, standard on industrial and access stairs.
• Open mesh grating. Lets water and debris through, so it is the default on external and plant access stairs. Usually galvanised.
• Timber inserts. A steel stringer and frame with oak or hardwood treads dropped in. Very popular on York loft and barn conversions where a warmer finish is wanted.
• Carpeted or finished treads. Steel pan treads designed to take a screed, tile or carpet finish once the building work is done.

Whether the stair needs risers behind the treads is generally a regulations question rather than a style one, particularly in domestic settings, so confirm it with your architect or Building Control before the design is fixed.

Working from Drawings, Sketches or an Idea

Not every project arrives with a full set of architect drawings, and it does not need to. We work from three starting points:

1. Full drawings. Architect or structural engineer details. We fabricate to spec and survey to confirm the actual opening before cutting.
2. A sketch with dimensions. Plenty of our domestic work starts here. We measure on site and develop the design with you.
3. A photo of something you like. Completely valid. We will tell you what is achievable, what it will cost and what would need changing to meet regulations.

Complex profiles, decorative infill panels and shaped stringers are cut on our CNC plasma table, which means an unusual design does not automatically become an unaffordable one.

Maintenance and Lifespan

A properly finished steel staircase should outlast most of the building around it. Internally, a powder coated or painted stair needs nothing beyond ordinary cleaning. Externally, galvanised steelwork is effectively maintenance free for decades, and a galvanised and powder coated stair only needs the coating checking occasionally for damage.

Where we do get called back is on older external stairs that were painted rather than galvanised. If you have one of those in York and it is starting to go, it is often cheaper to replace the flight than to keep patching it, and we will give you an honest view on which makes more sense.

Related Services

• Structural steelwork including frames, platforms and walkways
• Mezzanine floors where the staircase is part of a larger deck
• Bespoke fabrication for spiral, helical and feature staircases
• Steel lintels where a new stair opening needs forming

Frequently Asked Questions: Staircases and Balustrades in York