Looking for experiences with exposed concrete stairs

For 22 steps, your offer is very cheap, even without the topic of exposed concrete. A precast part will have to be ordered in time and of course must be lifted into the house in time. One side wall, one railing. You can do the wall connection as you like, e.g. a chamfer with shadow gap or fill with silicone. Or a sharp edge and then have the painter finish it.

Better plan it so that you can cover the stairs with something later. This concrete trend will cause many people quite a bit of rework in a few years.

It is also important to plan the heights precisely. If you plan your staircase without a covering, the top step must also be flush with the floor covering. If the bottom one is a few millimeters short, that is not so bad, but at the top, it's annoying. It is better to allow a few millimeters of space that can be filled later.

I made some calls this morning and for a prefabricated part we are actually too late. I also don’t want to delay the whole construction because of the staircase, so I will meet again with my stair builder and talk about the quality. If necessary, there is some solution in the end. Our requirements are not that strict; it can look "rough" as long as it is smooth, sealed, and waterproof so that no one gets injured (especially children climbing up, etc.).

If necessary

Plan it best so that you can later cover the staircase with something. This concrete trend will cause many a lot of rework in a few years.

There should still be a final solution possible

Actually, we never planned a fair-faced concrete staircase from the start but rather with a vinyl covering. That was because we initially wanted to tile the adjacent hallway area. But then we thought back and forth and were ultimately bothered by a transition from the open kitchen to the living room and also couldn’t quite get accustomed to a tile for that area, so we decided to reverse the contrast, that is to design the staircase in fair-faced concrete and then cover the adjacent floor areas with vinyl.

But it’s true, one should actually leave some room for a later alternative, but how do you then make the transition? Filling a few millimeters later sounds good. If at some point you decide on a covering, you could possibly sand it down again to level the floor with the adjoining floor.

A little update on our staircase, it was poured this week. So it is not yet stripped but you can already see the steps a bit. I am not sure how I feel about it yet and definitely need to see it again in daylight. For forming the risers, a smooth fine thin board was used...

Looks quite rough at first, but that can be worked on. Surface is nicely closed though and no voids. That's already a good sign. However, I would have had a chamfer applied to the step edges. If someone falls on such a sharp edge, the bone is definitely going to break. In addition, sharp edges wear down over time and then don't look good anymore. I would also have it sanded to create a slight chamfer. But that has to be done by someone with a steady hand and time to make sure it looks neat.