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Welcome to First Step Designs, Manchester's first choice for bespoke floating staircase design and manufacturing. We help homeowners, architects, and interior designers create unique spaces by crafting staircases that appear to hang effortlessly in mid-air; striking, modern, and precision-engineered to perfection.
Choosing First Step Designs for your floating stairs means working with the team of nationally recognised experts in our field. Having won the 2024 Build It Award for Best UK Staircase and recently been featured on Grand Designs, you can rest assured that every last detail—from the concealed framework to the final finishing touches—is a considered choice, with nothing left to chance.
For a dramatic architectural focal point in your Manchester home, speak to the team that brings award-winning inspiration to every project.
Floating stairs, also known as cantilever stairs, are among the most technically challenging staircase styles to design and fabricate. Completely forgoing visible support structures, the entire system relies on hidden anchor points, either concealed in a retaining wall or fully custom-built, and even the slightest inaccuracies can lead to lopsided or uneven stairs.
At First Step Designs, we take pride in setting the bar for precision staircase engineering. We rely on cutting-edge CAD, 5-axis CNC fabrication, and other modern material science advancements to consistently deliver floating stairs with the tightest tolerances.
When you demand nothing but perfection, choose First Step Designs.
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Your new or renovated stairs are no more than a quick call, email or message away.
You can also use our Inspiration Gallery to save images of our work that you like. Then, simply send them along with any other photos, plans, or details through our contact form so we can discuss your project.
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After understanding what you’re trying to achieve, we’ll send a detailed and itemised same-day quote. Our pricing is honest and transparent, allowing you to quickly determine if we are the right fit for your project.
At your request, we’ll gladly quote for multiple configurations of your ideal stairs.
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After visiting your home to take the measurements we need, we draft and present fully accurate 3D renditions of what your staircase will look like in your home.
Once the details, timelines, and installation dates are locked in, we begin fabricating your dream staircase.
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That’s right: sit back knowing that our expert team of craftsmen is hard at work bringing your staircase to life, fabricating your dream stairs to our exacting standards.
Depending on the complexity of the design, this typically takes anywhere from 3 to 5 days.
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Our expert and experienced team of Staffordshire-based installers will install your new or renovated stairs in 2 to 4 days.
They have a wealth of experience in joinery and engineering, a seriously professional attitude towards work, and operate as unintrusively as possible.
Floating staircases are unmatched when it comes to their ability to transform a space instantly. They're the pinnacle of modern staircase design, defying physics as they hang seemingly unsupported in the air.
Floating stairs offer:
Designing and crafting bespoke staircases can take several months. Award-winning staircases that leave nothing to chance take time, and we typically advise our clients to begin the design process 4 to 6 months before installation. This allows us to go through various design possibilities and iterations, ensuring stairs that are truly yours.
It is also important to consider that the staircase must be ready to install when the building is ready to take it. Delays can hold up the entire project, leading to frustration and additional project costs. With enough lead time, our design, engineering, and installation teams can ensure a staircase like no other, while remaining within budget and not delaying the project.
When a client has a very clear idea of what they want, we can design, fabricate, and install a bespoke staircase in as few as 4 to 6 weeks, depending on the design.
Bespoke staircases are often highly personalised, with factors such as the design complexity, material choices, finishing details, and installation difficulties all affecting the final cost.
Most of the bespoke staircases we have delivered in recent years ranged between £20,000 and £30,000 (+VAT).
Want to learn more about bespoke staircase pricing? Check out our blog on How much does a new staircase cost? for example projects with specifications and pricing.
Bespoke staircases are overwhelmingly constructed from a mix of materials. Almost all bespoke staircases feature a steel substructure or a reinforced timber structure, which can either be left visible or designed to be out of sight. The rest of the staircases are typically manufactured from steel, wood, glass, stone, or concrete, depending on our clients' requirements.
Materials are selected for their structural performance and how they contribute to the overall value of the design. Our design team plays an active role in guiding our clients to material choices that complement their home's aesthetic.
As long as the stairs are built to match the client's specifications, any style of staircase can be considered bespoke. As the UK's leader in bespoke stairs, we craft a wide range of custom staircases while ensuring they still meet UK structural and building regulations.
Bespoke staircases are stairs that have been specifically designed and built around an individual client's specific needs. Where mass-produced, pre-fabricated, or modular staircases that conform to standardised sizing aim to keep cost and complexity to a minimum, bespoke staircases offer homeowners the chance to transform their homes into unique spaces with striking staircases, impressive sightlines, and impossible-to-ignore focal points.
Bespoke staircases cost more; however, they are typically built by skilled craftsmen with a passion for making beautiful things with their hands, as opposed to mass-produced alternatives focused on speed and scale.
