Behind-the-Scenes: Building a Fresh Oak Staircase
The summertime is mainly about relaxation, right? Well, not for Jenny and Andre who asked Lluis Mateu to help build a brand new staircase from fresh oak for their project – Kunterbunthof – in Züsow, Germany.
2Kunterbunthof is a three-hectare land where guests can take a breath, sit around a campfire and meet inspiring people while enjoying silence and Spanish wines. Lluis first met the couple when he contributed to construction of the structure of an annex for the old farmhouse. This time an outdoor staircase was the challenge.
For this interview, we asked Lluis about the core idea behind this project, his experiences working with the steady oak and all the valuable lessons he took away from the learning process.
How did you start the project, what was the planning like?
Since it was a public building (a holiday apartment to be more exact), we needed a basic structure calculation to make sure that our staircase would pass any standards for safety regulations. After the decisions were made, we received oak planks slabbed from a trunk about 65mm thick. They came directly from the sawmill.
What were the most significant reasons behind the choice of wood? What are the most important attributes of oak?
Oak is a very strong and steady wood. Due to the fact that this staircase is for outdoor use, we needed something weather resistant (heat, cold, rain, snow etc.) Not to mention that the building itself was also made of oak since that was the way they built back in the days.
Historically they didn’t spend much time drying the wood. They used to cut the tree and use it almost immediately, which meant that the wood dried and moved after it was already in place. We did it the same way, so we had to pay attention to how much the wood would move once all the moisture was gone.
What were the main steps of the building process? What were the trickiest parts?
The very first step was accurate planning, finding the right angles and the appropriate height of each stair. We had been planning for such a long time that there were nights when I was even dreaming about the staircase…
As we did not have a straight sideline, all of my calculations were based on an imaginary middle line that I made with a tense string from the top of the apartment to the ground. This solution provided the benchmark for setting the angles and performing other measurements.
Finding the right angles was definitely the trickiest part as somehow we had to transform the data we got from the string in order to find the placement for the actual boards. The problem is that with a staircase, accuracy is very important. If you make a 1mm mistake and you add this difference for every step, you can end up with more than 1cm at the end which is way too big of a discrepancy.
How was your experience overall? What did you enjoy the most?
I have never worked with fresh wood before, so I had to consider what type of joints to use that would allow for movement of the wood and keep them from splitting. Each step was held in place by one wooden nail, which happens to be the most common technique that woodworkers used to apply when working with fresh wood.
First, they make a hole in the fresh wood and then they hit a dry wooden nail into it so when the fresh wood eventually dries out, it holds the nail stronger. Due to the fact that the wooden nail doesn’t lose moisture, it’s simply better than glue.
Anyway, my favorite part was the final sculpting at the end of the process and the moment when the staircase was finished and I could quietly leave my signature in the wood.
What are the main takeaways from the project? What did you learn?
I learned that no matter what the challenge is, you can do it with time, proper planning and the necessary toolkit. There is always a moment when you need to stop thinking and jump into the void.
What would you suggest for those who would like to build a staircase with fresh oak by themselves?
First, always ask around and get some advice. Then just do it. Never use any metal that is not stainless-steel as oak has very specific tannins that react with steel or metal and make it rust quickly and leave dark stains on the wood.
