Glass Stairs. The one people photograph.
An open-riser staircase on a concealed steel stringer, with frameless glass in place of a picket guard — nothing interrupting the flight from top to bottom. Engineered, fabricated and installed across Florida.
The glass is the guard, not the tread.
“Glass staircase” gets used for two very different things. One is a stair with glass steps. The other — the one almost everyone actually means, and the one we build — is an open-riser stair where the guard is frameless glass instead of pickets or a solid wall.
To be straight with you: Railing Max does not fabricate structural glass treads. If glass steps are what you are after, we are not your shop, and we would rather tell you now than three weeks into a quote.
What we do build is the version that reads as glass from across the room: hardwood, stone or metal treads on a concealed steel stringer, with low-iron frameless glass running the flight on a base shoe or point-fixed standoffs. No posts, no top rail, nothing chopping up the sightline.
We fabricate the steel, engineer the guard, and install with our own qualified crew. One team owns the whole assembly — no gap between the steel fabricator and the glazier for a problem to hide in.
Three decisions that set the price.
A glass staircase is two products working together — the structure and the guard. These are the variables that move the number.
The Stringer
A single centre spine reads the most sculptural and is the most demanding structurally. Twin stringers carry wide flights and heavy stone treads more easily. The opening usually decides which is possible.
Tread Material
Solid hardwood, natural stone or steel plate. Stone is heaviest, so the stringer is sized up accordingly — which is why the tread choice moves the steel cost, not just the finish cost.
Glass & Anchoring
Low-iron tempered glass, laminated where the code requires it. Concealed base shoe gives the cleanest line but needs depth at the floor; point-fixed standoffs work where that depth doesn't exist.
Light, moved through a floor.
The real argument for a glass staircase isn't the glass. It's what stops happening to the room once the stair is no longer a solid mass in the middle of it.
From survey to installed glass.
Built and installed.
Engineered, Not Assembled · Stamped structural drawingsLicensed Florida Contractor · CBC1270705
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Fabricated In House · Never a stock kitGlass stairs, answered.
An open-riser stair whose guard is frameless glass rather than pickets or a solid wall. The treads are hardwood, stone or metal carried on a concealed steel stringer; the glass is what removes the visual barrier along the flight. That combination is what people are picturing when they say "glass staircase."
No. Railing Max does not fabricate structural glass treads — glass steps are a different product from what we build. Our glass staircases use hardwood, stone or metal treads on an engineered steel stringer, paired with frameless glass railing. We would rather tell you that up front than partway into a quote.
Low-iron tempered glass for the guard panels, which removes the faint green cast standard float glass has on a thick panel. Where the code requires it the panels are laminated, so a structural interlayer holds the assembly in place if a lite is ever damaged. Panel size, thickness and anchoring are engineered for the specific flight.
Yes. The guard is engineered to Florida Building Code load and opening requirements, and the treads are conventional hardwood, stone or metal on an engineered steel stringer. Nothing about the walking surface depends on glass.
The glass needs only routine cleaning with standard glass cleaner and a soft cloth — no sealing or recoating cycle. Treads are maintained like any hardwood, stone or metal stair. In coastal locations, stainless hardware benefits from occasional fresh-water rinsing.
Frameless glass is the highest of the guard options, followed by stainless cable and then rod infill. The stair structure itself is priced the same either way — see floating stairs. We will quote more than one guard on the same drawing so you can compare honestly.
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