Spiral Stairs: The Unique Advantage

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The beauty and unique character of wood spiral stairs enhance the design and architecture of any environment. Not only do spiral stairs have a unique structural elegance, they are more space efficient than standard straight stairs and add value to the property.

Our woodworking craftsman have enjoyed a premier reputation worldwide. Unique Spiral Stairs follows a strict set of quality control guide-lines that keep us at the top of the industry.

All of Unique's wood spiral stairs are made exclusively in the Albion, Maine plant. Experienced craftsman design and construct spiral, straight run, curved, and straight/curved combination stairs for either interior or exterior use. Unique supplies products to the residential, commercial and Yacht industry. Only the finest species of hardwoods are used in construction. Unique offers a ten year warranty on all stairs provided the warranty terms are met (click warranty medal).

Unique is considered unique in the industry for our superior designs, use of high quality hardwoods, endless handrail profile and baluster offerings and of course our painstaking attention to detail. Unique's post-less stairs feature a helical design with two stringer/rail sets providing a rail in each hand. Our technology incorporates multi-laminated all hardwood plies to curve all stringers and rails for both strength and resilience. Beauty is achieved by hand selecting pattern grain face ply stock from widest hardwood material available. It is then used for all faces of the curved parts for a breathtaking view of what real hardwood pattern grain looks like. Assembly is completed with fully concealed hardware.

We would like to take this opportunity to point out some of our key features that help us stand out from our competitors (just in case you’re shopping a bit). We support this by the way.

Although we realize that there may be that fine line between bashing the competition and educating the consumer, we have all intent to educate potential clients of what we are made of, after all, this is an investment into architecture.

1. Each stairs customization level determines just how Unique the stair will be ~ (see stair options)
2. Our post-less, dual supporting stringer and rail sets all have 100 % solid hardwood of your choice throughout the entire stair (Red Oak is standard) vs. some competitors plywood or softwood - SPF (spruce, pine, fir) core with a thin veneer of hardwood for their supporting stringers and rail sets.   Real hardwood stairs will have less deflection or bounce with all hardwood laminated stringers and can easily be sanded in the event of damage without sanding through a thin veneer. Our typical laminates are 1/4" thick hardwood depending on the diameter of stair.
3. We use an engineered lamination technology.  Our solid hardwood face ply stock is dovetailed for length to provide a flawless mirror image of one board sliced in half.  The resulting 100% solid hardwood laminations lend to our stairs engineered weight capacities for both tread and total stair weight measures which nearly doubles the capacity of the plywood or softwood - SPF (spruce, pine, fir) core material. This is particularly important when considering multiple person occupancy at one time on the staircase.
4. Due to the use of 100% solid hardwood (of your choice), our stairs are truly free standing and do not require an unsightly intermediate (third leg) support to minimize the deflection (bounce). You'll find in some competitors literature that this "intermediate support is recommended but not required" especially for larger diameter or taller than average stairs.
5. We offer a 10-year warranty to back our products.  We know that over time all concealed hardware will hold well in hardwood.
6. Unique’s engineered construction methods make our units a lifetime choice.  Use of all hardwood allows for nearly any hardwood choice (from Alder to Zebrawood). Some 20 years later, a Unique stair will still be as sturdy as the day it was installed and possibly ready for a refreshing. A Unique Spiral Stair can be totally re-sanded to a brand new finish without sanding through a thin veneer exposing alternate core material.

Our stairs are shipped fully assembled with the exception of the rails and balusters. We strap the rails to the staircase and ship the balusters in a separate bundle along with the stair (so you should have no problem getting the stair into the space). Our entire 15 stair line up can be corkscrewed through a regular door opening provided there is sufficient length horizontally to accommodate the length (floor to floor height) of the stair.

We realize that we may be higher priced than some competitors for a comparative sized staircase; however, we justify this by the above very regularly. It simply costs us more to manufacture due to the solid hardwood, engineering homework and quality of our warkmanship.  Our craft is truly Unique in the industry.  From the quality of hardwoods used - use of the best adhesives available - to the choice of the highest quality hardwood and balusters anywhere to be found.

We would be willing to forward a stringer sample to you and ask that you request the same from our competitors. If they send you one you will see the difference for yourself.  For the entertaining approach - one could also equip with some safety glasses or a face shield and take a hammer to them for a bit.  Note you can still sand ours to a smooth – brand new finish.

Unique Spiral Stairs – the lifetime choice ~

We look forward to hearing back from you with your thoughts and thank you for your consideration in using our company.