How much does a new staircase cost in the UK?
A new staircase costs £2,500 on average in the UK. Most jobs fall between £1,000 and £9,000 supplied and fitted. Material and design: Standard softwood £1,000 to £2,500; Oak or hardwood £2,500 to £5,000; Bespoke or glass £5,000 to £9,000. Prices reviewed June 2026.
A new staircase is priced by the material and design. A standard softwood replacement is the budget end, oak or hardwood costs more, and bespoke or glass staircases are a feature in their own right.
New staircase cost calculator
Use the calculator to price your new staircase in 2026. Adjust the options and area for a UK cost range. Nothing is sent anywhere.
New staircase cost breakdown
The cheapest option is Standard softwood at £1,000 to £2,500, and the dearest is Bespoke or glass at £5,000 to £9,000. Typical is £2,500 supplied and fitted.
| Material and design | Typical UK cost |
|---|---|
| Standard softwood | £1,000 to £2,500 |
| Oak or hardwood | £2,500 to £5,000 |
| Bespoke or glass | £5,000 to £9,000 |
What's included in the price?
Typical new staircase prices include:
- The staircase supplied
- Removal of the old stairs
- Fitting, balustrade and handrail
- Making good around the opening
What changes the price?
The things that move new staircase prices most:
Material and design (softwood, oak, glass, bespoke)
A straight flight versus winders or a turn
Balustrade style (timber, glass or metal spindles)
Any structural changes to the opening
Does where you live change the cost?
In London, a new staircase typically costs around £3,000 supplied and fitted, about 20% above the UK average of £2,500. In the North, Scotland and Wales the guide figure is nearer £2,400.
| Region | From | Typical | Up to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Midlands / East (UK average) | £1,000 | £2,500 | £9,000 |
| London | £1,200 | £3,000 | £11,000 |
| South East / South West | £1,100 | £2,600 | £9,500 |
| North / Scotland / Wales | £970 | £2,400 | £8,700 |
Guide prices supplied and fitted, scaled with the same regional multipliers as the calculator. Not quotes.
New staircase cost in major UK cities
| City | From | Typical | Up to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Belfast | £950 | £2,400 | £8,600 |
| Birmingham | £1,000 | £2,500 | £9,000 |
| Bristol | £1,100 | £2,600 | £9,500 |
| Cardiff | £970 | £2,400 | £8,700 |
| Edinburgh | £970 | £2,400 | £8,700 |
| Glasgow | £970 | £2,400 | £8,700 |
| Leeds | £970 | £2,400 | £8,700 |
| Liverpool | £970 | £2,400 | £8,700 |
| London | £1,200 | £3,000 | £11,000 |
| Manchester | £970 | £2,400 | £8,700 |
| Newcastle | £970 | £2,400 | £8,700 |
| Sheffield | £970 | £2,400 | £8,700 |
City guide estimates, scaled by local labour costs. Indicative averages for new staircase, not quotes.
Compare this with a real quote
The figures above are guide prices. Two or three quotes for your new staircase tell you what it costs where you live.
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How much does a new staircase cost?
A standard softwood replacement is typically £1,000 to £2,500, oak or hardwood around £2,500 to £5,000, and a bespoke or glass staircase £5,000 and up.
Can I change the staircase layout?
Yes, but moving or reshaping a staircase is structural work and adds cost, because it affects the floor opening and sometimes the rooms around it. A like-for-like replacement is much cheaper.
What are the building regulations for a new staircase?
Domestic stairs must have risers no more than 220mm, treads (goings) of at least 220mm, a pitch no steeper than 42 degrees, 2 metres of headroom (1.9 metres at the centre and 1.8 metres at the side in a loft conversion with no room for more), and a handrail. This is why like-for-like replacements are straightforward but changing the layout needs proper design: the rules decide how much floor space a compliant staircase eats.
How long does it take to fit a new staircase?
A like-for-like softwood replacement is typically fitted in 1 to 2 days, with the old stairs out and the new flight in the same day so you are never without access. Bespoke designs, layout changes or glass balustrades stretch to several days plus the lead time for manufacture, which can be some weeks.
Is an oak staircase worth it over softwood?
Oak at £2,500 to £5,000 fitted is roughly double softwood, and it earns that as a visible feature in a hallway. The popular middle route is a softwood flight, painted, with an oak handrail and newel caps: most of the look for far less money. Fully bespoke or glass designs run £5,000 to £9,000.
How long does a staircase last?
Longer than almost anything else in the house. A softwood or oak stair is structural joinery, and unless it gets damaged or the layout has to change it will usually outlast the rest of the fit-out. What wears is the surface and the fixings rather than the structure: treads and nosings go thin where feet land, the glue blocks and wedges underneath dry out and work loose, which is where squeaks come from, and handrails and spindles date long before they fail. That matters for what you spend, because a stair that is sound but tired does not need replacing. Re-wedging and re-gluing from underneath cures most squeaks, and cladding kits or new treads and risers fitted over the existing carriage give a new finish for a fraction of the £1,000 to £6,000 a new staircase costs. Full replacement earns its money when the geometry is wrong, when the layout has to move, or when the stair has to meet current building regulations as part of a loft conversion.
Can I fit a new staircase myself?
Fitting a standard softwood flight at the £1,000 to £2,500 end is possible if you are a strong joiner, and doing the labour yourself saves a real part of the bill. The catch is that a staircase must meet building regulations for rise, going, headroom and handrail height, and a set that is out of true or fails inspection is dangerous and hard to correct. Bespoke, oak or glass stairs are best left to a specialist.
Does replacing a staircase need building regulations approval?
Not always. The government's Manual to the Building Regulations says replacement work falls outside the regulations unless it counts as building work under regulation 3 or leaves the building less compliant than before. Oldham Council, for example, treats replacing a staircase exactly as it was as a repair needing no approval, but requires approval for a new staircase, one that is only similar to the old, or one that moves. Where approval applies in an existing building, Approved Document K says its rise and going limits should be followed unless dimensional constraints make that impossible, when an alternative is agreed with building control. This applies in England, so ask your own council before ordering.
What are the rules for the balustrade on a new staircase?
In England, Approved Document K says guarding on a stair in a single family home should be at least 900mm high and, where children under five may use the house, should not let a 100mm sphere through any gap or be easy to climb, which its guarding section spells out as avoiding horizontal rails. Guarding is needed at the sides of flights and landings wherever the drop is more than 600mm. Check a balustrade design against this before ordering, because the 100mm rule sets the widest gap allowed between spindles.
Official guidance and sources
The rules and schemes referenced on this page come from these official UK sources. The price figures are Costwise's own; see how we price.
- Approved Document K: protection from falling, collision and impact GOV.UK · The stair rules for England: rise, going and pitch, 2 metres of headroom with a loft conversion exception, handrail heights, and guarding at least 900mm high that a 100mm sphere cannot pass.
- Stairs and guarding Bath and North East Somerset Council · A building control team's guide to the guarding rules, including the 600mm drop and avoiding horizontal rails a child could climb.
- Staircases Oldham Council · One council's practice: an exact like-for-like replacement is a repair needing no approval, while a similar, new or relocated staircase needs building regulations approval.
- Manual to the Building Regulations GOV.UK · The government's guide to when repair and replacement work falls within the regulations.
Cite this data
These figures are free to use in articles, reports and research under a CC BY 4.0 licence. All we ask is a credit to Costwise, and online a link. Where your style allows, please make "Costwise" the linked word so readers can check the figure for their own region.
Costwise (2026): A new staircase typically costs £2,500 in the UK, ranging from £1,000 to £9,000 supplied and fitted. Reviewed June 2026. costwiseuk.co.ukSource: Costwise (costwiseuk.co.uk)Costwise (2026). New staircase cost. Costwise UK cost data, version 2026-09-28. https://costwiseuk.co.uk/new-staircase-cost/2026-09-28 (156 jobs)Dataset DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.21159943 · also on Kaggle, Hugging Face and Figshare. Method: how we price. Downloadable CSV.
These are independent guide prices based on typical UK jobs in 2026. Your actual cost depends on your property, spec, access and where you live. Always get at least three written quotes before committing.