Affordable Contemporary Stair Ideas?

We're in the midst of a remodel, and our stairs had to be ripped out to put in shear walls for a 3rd floor addition.  Natural cherry wood is at the base of the stairs and a light taupe carpet is at the top.  I'm sick of cleaning light carpet stairs and am looking into wood, metal or anything other than light carpet.  I can't do open risers b/c the heater is beneath the stairs and it would look like crap. The stairs are straight and are currently framed in plywood.  See attached picture.

Thanks!

Julie

rubber flooring?

Hi there,

Codes in my local jurisdiction do not allow open risers (egress must be protected), so we went with bamboo treads and painted OSB risers and then will apply perforated metal to the risers.  I'll post pics when complete - right now it's just charcoal risers with bamboo treads.  Good luck!

Thanks for the input.  Gregory, I'm drooling at all the stairs in the link you posted.  Cool stuff.  And Krista, I'd love to see pix of what you're doing.  Been following your blog and it's been a great inspiration!

Very inspiring indeed. Too bad most of them are code violations or hazardous to

children, pets and the disabled (and the rest of us, too).

My favorite one in the bunch, for elegance and overall functionality, is the folded

punched metal staircase. I wonder if punched metal or expanded metal treads

are less nausea-inducing than glass.

Previously Gregory La Vardera wrote:

Here is some inspiration - 30+ pages of stair images from PushPullBar:

http://www.pushpullbar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2358&highlight=Stairs

I'm in the process of designing a modern stairway myself, on a frugal budget.

It's an open riser affair, with 36 treads, each 12" by 39" at an undetermined thickness. It needs to be partially translucent. I've toyed around with several ideas, including metal grating, resin sheet, glass, and wooden slats. Price per tread runs from about $100 to $500 apiece, or more.

Yesterday I hit on the idea of buying a bunch of IKEA Numerar countertops and cutting them up into treads. Hit 'em with an oil finish and we're talking about $50 per tread. Now, I guess I could add some translucency by boring a bunch of 3/4" holes. Lotta boring but at least it's something I could do myself

and wouldn't require a fabricator.

I'm just thrilled to discover the pushpullbar forums!