Stair railings and guards in Varennes
Guards fitted in the Varennes cottages between 1980 and 1995 answer to rules that are no longer the ones in force, and the assessment roll puts more than one house in two inside that window. Our interior guards leave the workshop in hardwood, steel or tempered glass, cut for the house as it actually stands.
Measured, milled at our workshop, installed and finished by our own team
Five railing families. One that fits your stairs.
In the cottages built here between 1980 and 1995 the original barrier is nearly always the same: turned balusters in painted pine. Here are the five ways to change it, all set out under our railings and guards.
Handrail
Changing the handrail alone: the smallest budget for a real difference.
Custom guard
Same height, same code compliance, but a design you chose rather than inherited.
Glass railing
The most light, and the most dramatic change of the five.
Metal railing
Slim steel balusters, matte black. The contemporary look people ask for most.
Railings and handrails
All four families together, to compare before you decide.
How it works, from the site visit to the install
The site visit measures the real height first, and the state of the sockets: that is where the movement shows.
A railing drawn, built and installed by the same team.
We take the dimensions from the nose of the tread, regulated height included, and we note what can stay in place. Nothing is drawn before that visit.
You get a dimensioned drawing and a firm price: infill, handrail, fixings. Nothing is cut until you approve it.
Everything is made in Granby, in our own shop. Count six to eight weeks between the approved drawing and the install. We check the dimensions a second time once the parts are laid out.
Our own crew installs it, in one to three days. No subcontractor: the same people from start to finish.
In Varennes, the 1980s turned baluster is at the end of its service.
More than one house in two here carries an original barrier with thirty to forty-five years of traffic behind it. It is nearly always the same parts: turned balusters in painted pine, socketed into a rail at the top and into a hole drilled in the nosing at the bottom. The wood has dried, the socket has gone oval, and the movement shows first in the middle of the span — which is usually when people call us. The fix is to carry every newel down to a structural support and recalculate the spacing span by span. Our guards are milled in Granby and fitted right across Montérégie.
- The existing height is measured on site, never inferred from the year
- Every newel is carried down to a structural support
- Baluster spacing is recalculated span by span
What is included, and what drives the price
A custom railing comes down to three or four decisions, not more. Here they are, so you know what to expect before you even call us.
- The site measurement, at your home
- The dimensioned drawing and your approval
- Manufacturing in our own shop in Granby
- Installation and finishing by our own crew
- The total length to cover: flight, landing, upper-floor opening
- The infill: turned wood, steel balusters, tempered glass
- The number of sections and corners
- A curved handrail rather than a straight one
- Keeping the existing posts and fixings
- Replacing the handrail only
- Choosing a standard infill rather than glass
- Doing the flight and the landing in one visit
Tell us what you have at home and we will tell you what it costs. The form is right below.
Tell us first whether the flight is staying
The address and the year of the building are enough to place the likely height of the present barrier and the way its posts were originally fixed. In Varennes those two details already point towards the answer.
Then say whether the treads are being kept, and whether the upper landing is edged as well. The site measurement follows, and the same hands that build it are the ones that fit it.
From the first measurement to the last tread, one team.
We subcontract neither the manufacturing nor the installation. The same team measures, mills and installs — and that is what allows us to correct on site the discrepancies no drawing ever anticipates.
Design
We measure the opening at your home, set out the rise and run, and settle the wood species and the railing. The project is fixed before a single piece is cut.
Manufacturing
Milled at the workshop, in hardwood. Every staircase is built for its own opening: nothing is assembled in series or pulled from stock.
Installation
Installed by our own team, in one to three days. Adjustments are made on site, against the real opening rather than the drawing.
Restoration
Straight, winder or spiral, classic or modern — measured at your home, milled at the workshop, installed by our team.
A few of our projects
Three fittings documented from the first measurement to the last adjustment. You can see the infill chosen, how the posts were anchored and the way the grip was joined.
And if the flight itself needs rebuilding?
Where the tread noses are hollowed and the flight shifts underfoot, a new barrier only draws attention to the wear beside it. In a cottage where both are exactly the same age, it is better to take them on in one job.
