Additional costs for oak stair covering instead of beech – usury?

Hello dear ones,

We have a concrete podium staircase in our house, which according to the contract is to be covered with beech steps. The standard railing should have a wooden handrail and stainless steel round rods.

The staircase has 6 straight steps, a rectangular podium of about 3 sqm, and then another 8 steps. The stairs are parallel with about 20 cm distance, so that no parapet railing is needed at the podium but the 20 cm can be compensated with a post in between.

It concerns one floor because the basement stairs will be tiled.

We now wanted to change the material from beech to oak because we have a lot of oak in the house and beech simply doesn’t fit. For the railing, we have chosen white lacquered square wooden rods instead of stainless steel rods, and we also wanted a rounded handrail.

The stair builder also offered to match the wood color to the wood-look tiles, which quite closely match the original oak tone. So nothing extraordinary.

We have now calculated about 4000 euros more. According to my internet research, I came up with additional material costs for oak per step of about 50-100 euros. Plus the additional costs for oak parquet instead of beech parquet on the podium and the changes regarding the railing.

The cost estimate now absolutely shocked us: nearly 9000 euros more material costs for 1 floor. For each step, 280 euros more material costs were calculated. For the risers, which now consist of white lacquered multiplex boards instead of beech, about 80 euros more per riser.

At first, we seriously thought they had offered us the stair covering for two floors, although a railing is only needed on the 1st floor, and that without extra costs but a complete staircase. I would have found the price realistic or even rather inexpensive in that case, but as it is.

Six years ago, we paid 11,000 euros here for a railing-bearing, two-times winding beech staircase, 3 floors long, with two 2 m long glazed parapet railings on the ground floor and 1st floor, complete with installation.

So I find the price they are naming to us here as additional costs almost exorbitant. I only fear it will be difficult to find another stair builder.

Do you have any ideas.

Best regards

Yes, it is too expensive; for us, it was an additional 4 to 5k a year ago for the virtually identical situation.

A knot-free oak currently costs 2.5 to 3 times as much as a beech as a carpenter’s material. The service provider’s surcharge is no bargain; your own calculation is somewhat unrealistic. There will still be some room for negotiation with me, but not too much.

whereas these quite closely match the original oak tone. So nothing extraordinary.

You are mistaken there, your service provider is thinking well for you. When you order oak wood for a staircase, you select the quality and color of the batch each time precisely to match the tones. Oak can have very different colors. There is not just one “original oak tone.”

With us, the difference in the offer between beech and oak platform stairs with risers is about 3,500. I cannot judge the one with the railing. Isn't that separated in the offer?

oh yes, of course it also depends more precisely. For example, finger-jointed or lamella.... is also a big difference.

For us, it would be a 3k surcharge from beech to oak with the general contractor.

However, we are now awarding the staircase regionally ourselves and are getting an even better overall price. We did not inquire about beech there at all.