Wooden staircase: oiled or lacquered

We used knotted oak oiled. It is very beautiful and I would always choose it again. We already had a few dents in it. But these can be easily fixed with sanding, wax, and oil. For the parquet in the living room, we also chose oiled. But unfortunately, you can see every stain immediately. Unfortunately, we already have a few of those. Otherwise, it is a very nice floor. We just need to re-oil both after almost a year now. Unfortunately, we haven’t managed to do that yet.

Yes, the prices I mentioned are the additional prices compared to lacquered beech. I will post the individual prices of the total offer including delivery & installation:

Staircase 16 steps €2,240.00
Ash black oiled €968.00
Balustrade railing €252.00
Ceiling panel €86.40
Square bar 16mm stainless steel €238.00
Wood spacer bar square €42.00
Wall bolts in stainless steel €125.00
Surface sealing oil €380.00

5% discount = plus VAT = 4,896.65 (2% cash discount possible)

Walnut factor 2
Oak factor 4 according to statement. Nice for those who have it

Is ash a hard wood? So, correspondingly durable?

By the way, we also chose an untreated, oiled beech staircase for the reason of "repairing." Oak was also too expensive for us... However, we still paid nearly 6000 EUR for a cantilevered staircase over one floor and a railing over two floors...

Is ash a hard wood? So, correspondingly durable

Wiki:
"Ash wood, with an average raw density of 690 kg/m³, is a heavy and also hard wood with favorable strength properties. Its tensile strength and bending strength surpass those of oak. It is elastic, abrasion-resistant, and tougher than most other native wood species due to its high fracture toughness. The mechanical properties are more favorable the wider the growth rings are.
Ash wood is often used both as solid wood and in the form of veneers, for example for kitchen, living room, and bedroom furniture, and in curved form for seating furniture. Furthermore, it is used for wall and ceiling paneling and for the production of parquet and plank floors. For all these applications, light wood without a color core is preferred. Ash wood is especially used when high demands are placed on strength, toughness, and elasticity, for example in the manufacture of handles for hammers, hatchets, shovels, hoes and axes, scythes, rakes, and other tools."

Our staircase builder recommends ash with regard to grain and absorption behavior if you want to go toward a darker shade. He strongly advised against dark oiled beech. Hmm... I unfortunately cannot (yet) verify that.

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If quoting from Wiki, please also remove the links; hoping "oops, someone else will do it" is quite annoying.

Thank you very much!
Construction expert

Ah ok. Thanks for the info!

Our oak staircase, including the drop board for the mezzanine and the railing, cost nearly €6000. It wasn't cheap. But the extra cost for oak was worth it to us because our kitchen is oak and so is our parquet flooring. And we didn't like any of the beech staircases. But with staircases, like with everything, there are quite a few price differences. In the end, we chose one from the mid-range. And we are also very satisfied with the service.