Custom Stairs

It was building stairs that initially launched me on my career working in homes. After some on-again-off-again work in the trades I eventually found my way into a custom stair shop in Franklin Lakes, NJ. Four days a week I was in the shop building circulars for Glen Rock Stairs, leaving Fridays and Saturdays for side work doing stair and railing installations. Eventually I stumbled into a niche for myself building winders—that is spiral stairs that fit into a square, rather than circular footprint. Winders were the stairs that no one wanted to build because of their fussy jigsaw-puzzle-style construction. So when the first opportunity arrived for me to build a set of winders for a high end Upper West Side client I jumped. With a little guidance from my mentors at the shop, and substantial help from a fantastic stairbuilding textbook, I worked through that first job and from then on was hooked. I love the practical design solutions and intrinsic beauty of stairs. To this day I invite any opportunity to build stairs and get back to my roots.