Treads from $80 per step Riser tolerance checked first Removal quoted separately Toronto and the GTA

Hardwood stairs and stair installation in Toronto

Adding hardwood to stairs changes the height of every step it touches, so Toronto Flooring Co measures the whole flight against the Building Code riser tolerance before quoting a single tread.

Rise measured at every step, top to bottom, before any material is ordered

Treads, risers, nosings and stringers priced as separate components

Old staircase removal and disposal quoted as its own line

Nosing profile carried through to the floor at the top of the flight

Book a stair measure

Step count, what is on the stairs now, and whether the floor at the top is being done at the same time.

What can we help with?

Service

So the right crew reviews your project.

Any workmanship warranty is set out in your written quote, job by job.

The measurement that decides the job

5 mm between adjacent stairs, 10 across the flight

The Ontario Building Code puts a limit on how much the risers in one flight may differ from each other. Article 9.8.4.4 allows no more than 5 mm of variation between adjacent treads and no more than 10 mm between the tallest and the shortest riser in the flight, with the same tolerances applied to treads. Those numbers are reproduced from the 2012 and 2017 editions, and the 2024 edition is the one legally in force, so treat them as the shape of the requirement rather than the final word. The shape is what matters here. A piece of hardwood 19 mm thick laid on the top step and nothing on the bottom step consumes the entire 10 mm allowance twice over. That is the reason a stair job is never a partial job: the finish is carried through the whole flight, or the treads are rebuilt so every rise lands within tolerance.

What a stair build includes

Every rise measured

We measure the rise at each step from the bottom of the flight to the top, not just at one end. Older Toronto staircases were often built to whatever the floor heights gave them, so the existing variation is the starting point for what adding material will do.

Components priced individually

Tread, riser, nosing, stringer and skirt are separate items with separate costs. A quote that gives one number per step without saying which of those five are in it cannot be compared to anything, so ours lists them.

Removal priced, not absorbed

Taking an old staircase out runs $300 to $700 in Toronto, and it is quoted on its own line. Carpet removal on stairs is different work again from removing a carcass, and both are dirtier and slower than removing a floor.

Hardwood stair pricing in Toronto

Toronto ranges collected September 2026. Stairs are priced per step or per flight and never by floor area, so a stair line inside a square-foot quote is a sign the stairs were not measured.

New treads over carpeted stairs

$80-$300 / step

Two Toronto sources overlap at $150 to $200 per step
Carpet, staples and tack strip removed first
Existing carcass checked for rot and movement
13 to 14 steps in a typical flight

Price new treads

Recapping a flight

From $4,900

Treads and riser faces recapped over the existing carcass
Recapping plus a full railing from $5,500
Staining or finishing adds about $100
Nosing profile matched to the floor at the top

Ask about recapping

Removal and full rebuild

$300-$700 removal

Old staircase out and disposed of $300 to $700
Whole staircase including stringers and skirt from $3,500
Subfloor repair at the head and foot $1-$4 per sq ft
Transitions where the flight meets each floor $200-$600

Scope a rebuild

Our Process

How new stairs go in

1

Measure every rise

Rise recorded at each step, run measured, and the tallest and shortest compared. This tells us whether adding tread thickness is possible as-is or whether the carcass has to be cut down to make room for it.

2

Strip the flight

Carpet, pad, staples and tack strip out, or the old staircase removed at $300 to $700. Then the bare carcass is inspected for rot, split stringers and treads that flex under load.

3

Fit treads and risers

Treads cut to the real width of each step rather than to one template, because a Toronto flight is rarely square from top to bottom. Risers fitted behind, nosings profiled to match the floor above.

4

Finish and check

Stained and coated where the treads are unfinished, then every rise measured again against the flight and the result shown to you before we leave.

What we will tell you about your flight

Stairs are the part of a flooring project where surprises cost the most, so these come up at the measure rather than mid-job.

Whether your flight has room for the material

If your existing risers already vary near the limit, adding 19 mm of tread to some steps and not others pushes the flight outside the tolerance in Article 9.8.4.4. The answer is either to carry the material through every step including the landing edge, or to cut the carcass down so the finished rise stays consistent. We will tell you which one your staircase needs.

That the Code also limits the rise itself

Table 9.8.4.1 sets private stairs inside a dwelling at a maximum rise of 200 mm and a minimum of 125 mm, with public stairs capped at 180 mm. Those figures come from the 2012 and 2017 editions and the 2024 edition is now in force, so we treat them as direction and verify against the current text where a job sits near a limit.

When stair work needs a permit conversation

Replacing a tread surface is finish work. Changing stair geometry is not. Industry guidance reading the Ontario Building Code treats permits as attaching when subfloor structure is altered, a slab is changed, stair geometry is modified or the use of a space changes. That is a contractor reading rather than a City statement, and we raise it at the survey so you can confirm it with the City if your job goes that way.

What the old staircase is hiding

Under carpet we find construction-grade stringer stock, staple holes, split treads and occasionally rot at the bottom step where a wet boot has stood for thirty years. In a pre-1945 house we also watch for knob-and-tube wiring, used in homes from the early 1900s to the 1940s, running through the framing at the head of the flight. If it appears we stop and bring in a licensed electrician.

A flight of stairs is measured against itself

The thing that makes stair work different from floor work is that a staircase is measured against itself.

A floor only has to be flat. A flight has to be consistent, and the Ontario Building Code says so in Article 9.8.4.4: no more than 5 mm of variation between adjacent risers and no more than 10 mm between the tallest and shortest riser in the flight. That is a small allowance. A standard piece of solid hardwood is around 19 mm thick, so laying it on the tread surface raises that step by roughly twice the total variation the whole flight is permitted.

Which is why the following happens all the time. Someone refinishes the upstairs floor and carries the new hardwood onto the top step because it looks better that way. The top rise shrinks by 19 mm, the bottom rise stays as it was, and the flight is now outside tolerance. It is also the step the household trips on for the next month, because feet learn a rhythm from the steps below and the last one no longer matches.

There are two honest fixes. Carry the material through every step so the rises change together, or cut the carcass down so the finished surfaces land where the old ones did. Both cost more than doing one step. Neither is optional if the flight is going to be right.

The figures above are reproduced from the 2012 and 2017 editions of the Code. The 2024 edition has been in force since January 2025, so we treat the tolerance as the shape of the rule and verify the current text where a job sits close to a limit.

$300 to $700 to take the stairs out

Stair removal is a line item because it is a job in its own right.

Toronto figures put taking an old staircase out at $300 to $700 including disposal. Stripping carpet off a flight is different work again: pad, hundreds of staples and the tack strip on every tread and riser, all of which have to be out before a new tread will sit flat. A single staple left proud will telegraph through the tread that covers it.

Then the carcass gets inspected, and this is where stair jobs change price. We look for stringers split at the housings, treads that flex when weight lands mid-span, and rot at the bottom step where three decades of wet boots have stood. In a pre-1945 house we also check the framing at the head of the flight for knob-and-tube wiring, used in homes from the early 1900s through the 1940s. Finding live knob-and-tube stops the job until a licensed electrician has been in, which is the right outcome even though nobody enjoys it.

Three parts meet at the top of the stairs

The hardest visual joint in a flooring project is the top step.

At that point the stair nosing, the landing floor and often a transition all meet within a few inches, in full view from the bottom of the flight. Get it wrong and every visitor sees it. That is why we prefer to quote stairs and the floor they serve at the same time, even when the two are being done months apart: the nosing profile, the species and the finish schedule all have to be decided once rather than twice.

Component pricing helps here. Treads, risers, nosings, stringers and the skirt board are separate items on our quote, so when a budget has to move you can see exactly what moves with it. Dropping real wood riser faces for painted board changes the number substantially and changes the top-step detail not at all. Dropping the nosing detail saves very little and is the one thing everyone looks at.

Hardwood stair questions

Can you put hardwood treads over my carpeted stairs?

Usually yes, and it is the most common stair job in Toronto at $80 to $300 per step, with two local sources overlapping at $150 to $200. The order of work is carpet off, pad off, every staple and the tack strip out, then the bare carcass inspected. What decides the price inside that range is what the carcass turns out to be: sound construction stock that takes a new tread cleanly, or split and flexing treads that have to be replaced before anything can be fastened to them.

Why does adding hardwood to one step affect the whole staircase?

Because the Code limits variation between risers rather than setting each riser on its own. Article 9.8.4.4 allows no more than 5 mm between adjacent risers and no more than 10 mm between the tallest and shortest in a flight. A 19 mm tread added to the top step while the bottom step keeps its old height changes the relationship between them by far more than 10 mm. It is also the step people trip on, because a foot lands where the last thirteen steps taught it to. So the material is carried through the whole flight or the carcass is cut to absorb it.

Do the stairs have to match the floor exactly?

They have to relate to it, which is not the same thing. Treads take concentrated wear on a narrow strip, so the same species and stain can read slightly differently on a tread than on the open floor it meets. The joint that matters is the nosing at the top of the flight, where the stair meets the floor and both are visible in one glance. We profile that nosing to the floor and keep the species consistent, then set expectations on tone rather than promising an invisible match.

What does taking the old staircase out cost?

Toronto figures put old stair removal at $300 to $700 plus disposal, quoted separately from anything that goes back in. It is separate because it can be the only part of the job that happens: some flights are removed to open a stairwell, and some are removed because the carcass is beyond repair and the decision to rebuild is made afterwards. A whole replacement staircase including stringers and skirt board starts around $3,500 on top of the removal.