Brisbane stair builders · QBCC 15357497
External stairs in Brisbane
Straight flights, landings and full replacements for Brisbane homes. Measured twice, built to code and finished to be walked on for decades.
What it covers
Stairs you stop thinking about.
On a raised Brisbane home the stairs do more work than any other timber on the block, and they cop the weather while they do it. We replace tired flights and build new timber stairs: measured properly, set out to code, and framed so every tread lands the same underfoot.
- Full replacements of existing external stairs
- New flights, landings and handrails
- Treads, stringers and balustrades
- Timber suited to Queensland weather
- Built to code, QBCC licensed
Stairs often land as part of a bigger job. New decks usually need them, and a loose tread or soft stringer on an otherwise sound flight is a repair job, not a rebuild.
Stair replacements and new timber flights
Most of our stair work in Brisbane is on raised homes: Queenslanders, post-war high-sets and anything with a verandah a storey off the ground. The front and back stairs on those houses are structural timber that lives outside. When they go soft or start to move, patching rarely holds, so we take the old flight out and build the new one to suit the house.
- Front and back stair replacements on Queenslanders and high-set homes
- New flights and landings for verandahs, extensions and new decks
- Stringers, treads, posts, handrails and balustrades
- New posts and balustrades matched to the character of the house
Built to the stair code, tread by tread
External stairs on a house are covered by the National Construction Code, and the numbers are not negotiable. These are the ones that shape every flight we set out:
- Risers between 115 mm and 190 mm, and the same height all the way up the flight
- Goings, the part of the tread you step on, between 240 mm and 355 mm
- Twice the riser height plus the going adding up to between 550 mm and 700 mm
- No more than 18 risers before a landing, and landings at least 750 mm long
- A handrail at least 865 mm above the tread nosings
- A balustrade wherever the fall is 1 m or more, with no gap a 125 mm ball can pass through
Those figures come from the National Construction Code housing provisions. Ben sets each flight out against them before any timber is cut, which is how a sloping block still ends up with even steps. Our guide to building external timber stairs walks through the set-out, and the stair calculator does the sums for your own rise.
How a stair job runs
- Walk-through and measure. Ben visits, measures the rise and checks what the stairs land on and hang off.
- Written quote. A clear price for the stairs you talked through, not a guess.
- Scope and schedule. Materials, timeline and start date agreed before anything begins.
- The build. Old flight out, new stairs in, with Ben and the crew on site and easy to reach.
- Handover. We walk the finished stairs with you and leave the site clean.
Stair guides from the tools
If you are still working out what you want, these cover the questions we hear most:
In their words
Measured work, measured record.
Stairs get judged every day, underfoot. What clients say about ours sits on Google in their own words, and the numbers sit underneath.
Google rating
5.0
“Ben responded promptly to my enquiry for replacement of my queenslander front stairs. I found Ben and his team to be professional and courteous. The job was scheduled and completed on time. I am extremely pleased with the result. The site was left clean and tidy. Definitely will use his services again.”
- Five star Google reviews
- 37
- Years in construction
- 12
- Brisbane suburbs served
- 36
- Tradies under the one crew
- 5
Straight answers
Stair questions we get asked.
Repair the stairs or replace them?
It depends on what the stringers are doing. Worn treads on sound stringers can be a repair. Rot or movement in the structure usually means the flight owes you nothing. Ben looks at what is actually there and tells you straight, either way.
Are the new stairs built to code?
Yes. Riser heights, going depths, handrails and balustrades are all set out to the current code, and the work is done under QBCC licence 15357497. Stairs are one place where near enough is not good enough.
What timber do you use?
Timbers that handle Queensland sun and rain, chosen to suit the job and how the stairs will be finished. Ben talks through the options and their trade-offs when he quotes, so the choice is yours with the facts in front of you.
What happens to the old stairs?
Taking the old flight out is part of the job, and the site is left clean when we go. Tidiness comes up in our Google reviews again and again, and it is how the crew works from day one, not just at handover.
How much do new external stairs cost?
It depends on the rise, the number of landings, the timber and the balustrade. A short flight to a low verandah is a different job from two flights and a landing on a high-set home. Ben measures up first and gives you a clear written quote, so the number you see is for your stairs, not an average.
Do external stairs need building approval?
Some do, some do not. In Queensland it comes down to the height of the stairs, what they attach to and whether the job changes the structure. Raise it with Ben at the walk-through and you will know what your job needs before anything starts. Our approval guide for decks and stairs goes through it job by job.
Can you build the stairs with a new deck?
Yes. Decks and stairs often get built as one job by the same crew, so the flight is set out with the deck rather than added afterwards.
Where we do this
External stairs across 36 Brisbane suburbs.
Core turf is The Gap, Ashgrove, Bardon and Kedron, with the same crew covering the inner ring.
Get a quote
Talk through your stairs.
A call or an email books a walk-through. Ben measures the flight, checks what is underneath, and you get a clear written quote.
- Phone
- 0430 705 916
- Hours
- Mon to Thu 6:30am to 8pm
Fri and Sat 6:30am to 4:30pm
Sun closed - Licence
- QBCC 15357497