How much does a bespoke staircase cost?

You only buy a staircase once or twice in the life of a house, and you take it dozens of times a day for thirty years. It is also one of those subjects where home-improvement websites publish everything and its opposite: 'from €1,200 to €20,000', thank you, that gets you nowhere. Here are ranges you can actually use, then the detail of what really drives the price.

The 2026 prices, shape by shape

My own range, for a staircase designed, built in the workshop and fitted, balustrade included: €4,000 to €12,000. It is published on my bespoke staircase page. I would rather write it here than make you earn it after three forms, because it is the answer most websites dodge. It depends on five things, always the same ones. You can also browse the staircases I have already fitted to put pictures to these ranges.

The five things that really make the quote

1. The shape. A straight staircase is simple geometry. As soon as it turns, some of the treads become winders: wider on one side than the other so the stair can turn without a landing, each one unique, each one marked out and cut individually. That is workshop time, and workshop time has a cost: I have broken it down in what a day of an artisan's work costs.

2. The species. At retail prices, beech runs €900 to €1,400 per m³ of slab timber, oak €1,700 to €2,400. Moving from one to the other raises the finished staircase by 20 to 30%, not double, because the material is only part of the price. The choice deserves its own article: which wood for a staircase.

3. The risers. Open (no risers, daylight between the treads) or closed: the price difference stays modest, a few hundred euros. It is first of all a choice of use: light and visual lightness on one side, possible storage under the staircase and simpler cleaning on the other.

4. The balustrade. The most underestimated item: from a simple wall-mounted handrail to a balustrade with spindles or cables, it runs from €500 to over €2,000. It is compulsory as soon as the fall height exceeds one metre, at 90 cm minimum at the tread nosing and 1 m on the landing. In my quotes it is included: check this point when you compare, it is a classic source of gaps that deceive the eye.

5. The finish and the stairwell opening. Varnishing (vitrification in French) or oiling adds a few hundred euros but decides the maintenance for twenty years. And if the stairwell openingStairwell opening: the opening in the upstairs floor that the staircase passes through, known as the trémie on French plans and quotes. Its dimensions dictate the shape of the staircase and the headroom above the treads. has to be created or enlarged, structural work joins the project: it is common when replacing a spiral with a more comfortable staircase.

The gold-underlined words are explained on hover. All definitions are in the joinery glossary.

What bespoke buys you: geometry that is right

A comfortable staircase obeys precise rules, and that is first of all what you are paying for. A riser height between 16 and 21 cm, with the ideal sitting between 17 and 18. A regular goingGoing: the usable depth of the tread, where the foot lands, known as the giron in French. Pleasant staircases sit around 24 to 28 cm; below that, the descent turns tiptoe.. And above all Blondel's formula, three centuries old and still in the standards: twice the riser height plus one going must land between 60 and 64 cm, the length of a human stride. Add headroom (the clear height above the treads) of at least 1.90 m, and a width of 70 cm at the strict minimum, 80 to 90 to be comfortable. A staircase that respects all this is climbed without thinking about it. A staircase that cheats reminds you of it at every trip.

Shop kit or artisan: the real match

A kit staircase starts at around €300 in a DIY superstore: mass production, standard dimensions, fir or glue-laminated beech. For loft access or a tight budget, it is an honest option, and I would rather tell you so.

The trap is elsewhere: your floor-to-floor height almost never lands exactly on the kit's dimensions. You trim, you compensate, and it is Blondel's formula that breaks, often with a first or last step different from the others, the one that trips people. Add the fitting if you do not feel up to it (€500 to €1,200 by a professional) and VAT: in the end, a well-fitted kit often comes to €1,500 or €2,500. The gap with the workshop narrows without disappearing: what bespoke buys is the right geometry and solid wood of your choosing.

My honest opinion: for an attic you visit twice a month, a cleanly fitted kit does the job, and if you call me for that, I will tell you so. For the main staircase, the one your family takes fifty times a day for thirty years, the difference between a trimmed-down kit and a staircase designed for your house is felt at every step: in the rhythm of the treads, in the silence, and on the day you sell. Spread over its lifetime, a €6,000 workshop staircase kept for thirty years comes to €17 a month. Few things in a house offer that use-to-price ratio.

10% VAT and renovation: the two levers that change the figure

First lever: VAT. In a home completed more than two years ago, a staircase supplied and fitted by the company qualifies for VAT at 10%, the reduced French rate for renovating homes over two years old, supply included, whatever the material. You sign a declaration, that is all. In a new build, it is 20%. And if you buy the kit yourself and have it fitted, the supply stays at 20%: only the fitting drops to 10%. On a €6,000 staircase, the difference in rate represents several hundred euros: check that it appears in black and white on the quote (the devis), I confirm it on mine.

Second lever: not replacing at all. If the structure is sound, a tired staircase can be renovated: €20 to €30 per step for sanding and varnishing, €95 to €250 per step for a complete recladding of the treads. And a noisy staircase is often cured in one visit; I have written a full guide: renovating a creaky staircase. Replacing a staircase that could have been renovated is the joinery version of a new engine in a healthy car: nobody wins, except the seller.

Finally, bespoke also exists to solve the unsolvable. I built an alternating-tread staircase (escalier à pas japonais) in an octagonal room, in chocolate oak (a rare natural colour, not a stain) and spruce, where no standard model would fit. On timing, allow 6 to 10 weeks between approving the quote and the fitting: the staircase is built in the workshop while you keep the use of the old one, and fitting takes 1 to 3 days.