What a "full" renovation actually covers
A full staircase renovation goes beyond replacing the wood. It is a coordinated set of decisions — about layout, light, sightlines, and the relationship between the entry and the rest of the main floor — and those decisions are yours to make. You choose the species (white oak, walnut, maple, painted pine), the balustrade language (iron, glass, wood), and whether the rough opening stays in place or shifts to open a new sightline. In a typical Welland or Fonthill bungalow renovation we open up the closed-stringer wall, reframe the opening, install the new flight to the species and profile you have chosen, fit a code-compliant balustrade or glass guard, transition flooring at top and bottom landings, and finish all surrounding millwork — so what was a dark utility corner becomes a deliberate threshold.
Renovation types we deliver
The renovation path you pursue depends on what the existing structure gives you and what the finished home needs. Open-up renovations — removing a closed wall to expose a stair to the entry hall, the most common Welland bungalow upgrade, and the change that most transforms how an entire main floor reads. Feature stair installations — floating treads, curved runs, mixed steel-and-wood designs that anchor an open-concept main floor; you decide every material combination and proportion. Geometry corrections — bringing inconsistent rises (above the OBC 5 mm tolerance) back to compliance, often required during property resales. Balustrade-only renovations — keeping existing treads but replacing dated 1980s spindle systems with iron, glass, or modern wood balustrades of your choosing. Whole-entry renovations — stair plus flooring, wainscoting, lighting and front-door surround as a single coordinated project.
Engineering and code coordination
Whenever a renovation touches load paths, headroom, or the rough opening, we file the supporting drawings and coordinate with Welland Building Services (or the relevant municipality). OBC O. Reg. 332/12 Section 9.8 governs rise/run, headroom (1950 mm minimum), nosing geometry, and guard heights. Where the change is structural — moving a stair to a different opening, changing a closed stringer to a cantilevered system — we produce P.Eng-stamped drawings and book the framing inspection ourselves so the trades schedule downstream is not blocked. Permits are not a surprise we hand off to you; we account for them in the timeline from the first consult.
Living through the renovation
Most clients stay in the home throughout — and most of our renovations happen exactly that way. Our renovation sequence keeps at least one path between floors safe at all times, contains dust at the work zone with zip-walls and HEPA-vented negative-pressure fans, and pre-finishes every wood component in our St. Catharines shop so the on-site phase is mostly assembly. Daily clean-down is mandatory, not optional. We schedule noisy demolition for the windows the family chooses.
Recent renovation projects
Open-up renovation of a Welland 1960s side-split, replacing closed pine stringers with a white-oak feature flight and a glass guard (2025); curved-stair entryway renovation in a Niagara-on-the-Lake heritage rebuild (2024); balustrade-only modernization of a St. Catharines walk-up adding iron pickets and oak handrails (2024); whole-entry renovation in a Port Colborne canalside home including stair, flooring, wainscoting and front-door surround (2024). See finished work in the gallery. We serve all of Welland — from the canal district and downtown core to the north-end and Dain City neighbourhoods — and you can find more local context on our Welland service area page.
Process and warranty
Free in-home consult, written quote, CAD drawings, then sequencing — fabrication first in our St. Catharines shop, then on-site demolition and install. Workmanship is guaranteed for 10 years on the staircase itself, 5 years on companion millwork. Browse all services, see our full process, or start a project on the contact page.