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Stair Supplies

Oak Stair Parts

by Andrew Kozlov

While oak stair parts are generally more expensive than pine or hemlock stair parts, they tend to last longer and wear more elegantly than these other woods. Indeed, oak offers you an enormous variety of ways to finish. You can stain oak, apply a light resin, and even leave the wood bare to the environment. The only downside to building with oak is that it absorbs humidity from the environment, so it shrinks and expands slightly depending on the weather.

In addition, since oak is a hardwood, it can splinter or crack if your construction techniques aren't keen. You may want to sink your nails or screws and apply a wood putty and resin to avoid mechanical fractures. It also helps to carve at least one or two extra balusters before you begin to assemble your balustrade and hand rail system.

Classic Oak Stair Parts

The most fun aspect of creating a staircase with oak is carving your newel posts and beveling your spindles. Although oak isn't the most workable material, it rewards skilled carpentry. Oak finished and ornamented newel posts, burnished with fresh resin, connote unsurpassed luxury and class.

Given that oak is such a precious material--even when compared with other high caliber woods, such as maple and hemlock--it may behoove you to contract out the more difficult aspects of stair building to a professional carpenter. Measure the rise and run of your staircase carefully. If you have an oak floor, it might warp on the scale of millimeters, so you want to take your rise measurement from the base of where the stairs start.

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