Morel and Sons is a small family stair building business that is about an hours drive from my workshop.

They have a big CNC machine and make traditional stairs to very high standards. I’ve often asked them to machine parts for me and have always been very satisfied with the quality of the parts they delivered.

Although they make great stairs they had very little experience in making curved parts.

Last year Jean Marc Morel the director contacted me to ask my advice on how to build a curved staircase to replace a stair that had been damaged in a fire.

I suggested that he try out my horizontal laminated technique and I gave him a couple of links to my website and videos.

I completely forgot about the project until I went back to see them earlier on this year. Chatting to Jean Marc he said casually that he had made the curved stair and showed me the photos.

This was the first time that Jean Marc and his team had used this technique and using only the information on our web site he has made an amazing job of a very complex project.

This is a great example of how simple and effective this technique is for making complex shaped stairs.

Here’s a quick description of how the project went for them…

This is the burnt stair to be replaced:

burnt stair to be replaced

Here are the horizontal laminates glued up in the workshop:

how to build a curved staircase

Note the long dowels that holding the laminates in place and providing the cross grain support:

long dowels holding laminates in place

Here the outer veneers are glued to the laminates using white glue and plenty of clamps:

outer veneers are glued to the laminates

The step housings are machined into the veneered strings using a router and guide made in flexy ply:

step housing machined into veneered strings

Mortises for false tenons are machined onto the end of the strings to assemble the curved section to the straight strings:

how to build curved stairs

The edges of the curved string are cleaned up and veneered:

curved string cleaned up and veneered

Here’s the stair assembled in the shop:

assembled stair in workshop

Here’s the stair finished with a curved panel under the wreathed string to close a lower rising stairwell:

building a curved staircase

curved panel under the wreathed string

Please sign up for Wood Designer Premium Support if you’d like to learn more about how to build curved stairs yourself.

Thanks for reading.

4 Comments

  1. Réjean Breton on June 28, 2022 at 6:20 am

    Bonsoir ou bonjour
    Avez vous ce texte en français ?

    Do you this version in french ?

    With / Avec l’atelier bois ?

    Merci tanks you

    • Fatima on June 28, 2022 at 2:47 pm

      Hi Réjean

      Yes, we do have a Frech version of this article, I will email you with the details.

      Have a great day!

  2. Ness on December 18, 2014 at 5:56 am

    Hello Mustafa,
    Thanks for your comment.
    Design is a vast subject.
    There are thousands of design magazines that you can read.
    One online magazine that you can subscribe to is Houzz.
    With the internet finding design ideas is too easy the problem for a manufacturer is more what do I want to design for?
    So,as a manufacturer, what are my objectives and which design styles will help me towards my objectives?
    All the best,
    Ness

  3. Mustafa Badran (mbadran@sff.com.eg) on December 17, 2014 at 6:43 pm

    Dear Sir,

    Actually it very fantastic artificial product which I like it and very interesting in fabricating it in my new factory,

    Kindly support me in this very interesting field of high stylish industries,
    based on that, I’m asking your kind guidance If there is a regular design magazine which I can Subscript in it so that they can support and supply me with all new designs it will be highly appreciated sir.

    Thanks & Best Regards

    Sincerely Yours

    Mustafa Badran
    Stylish Furniture Factory
    692, 3rd Settlement Industrial Area
    New Cairo City, Arab Republic of Egypt
    +201066240420/+966551379845

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