A floating staircase looks like it shouldn’t work. Treads projecting from a wall with no visible support underneath, no stringer running along the side, nothing but air between each step. The effect is dramatic — and the engineering behind it is more involved than most homeowners expect when they bring a Pinterest screenshot to their first meeting with a fabricator.
We build these systems out of our Burnaby shop, and the question we get most often isn’t about aesthetics. It’s “how does it actually stay up?” The answer is steel — a lot of it, carefully hidden.
What makes a staircase “floating”
The word gets used loosely. Some people call any open-riser staircase a floating stair. In the fabrication trade, a true floating staircase has its structural support concealed so that treads appear to be cantilevered with no visible means of support.
There are three main ways to achieve this.
Wall-mounted cantilever brackets. Steel plates or tube sections are bolted through the wall finish into reinforced framing — typically doubled or tripled studs with steel backing plates, or a concealed steel channel embedded in the wall during framing. Each bracket carries one tread. From the room side, you see a wood or stone tread projecting from a flat wall. This is the most common system we fabricate for residential projects in Vancouver and North Vancouver, because it works well in new construction where the wall framing can be designed around the stair loads.
Hidden central mono stringer. A steel mono stringer runs up the centre of the staircase, but it’s concealed within a drywall bulkhead or recessed into the floor structure. The treads mount to the stringer through the finished surface. This approach works for freestanding staircases that don’t have a structural wall to anchor into — we’ve used it on open-plan Burnaby custom homes where the staircase sits in the middle of the living space.
Suspended cable or rod systems. Instead of support from below, the treads hang from tension rods or cables anchored to the ceiling structure or an overhead beam. The visual effect is similar — treads floating in space — but the structural logic is reversed. The load goes up, not into the wall. This is less common in residential work because it requires significant overhead structure, but it shows up in commercial lobbies and double-height spaces.
Each system has different structural requirements, different cost profiles, and different constraints on where it can be installed. The choice depends on the floor plan, the available structure, and what the architect or homeowner is after visually.
The engineering behind the disappearing act
A conventional staircase distributes load through stringers that run the full length of the stair. A floating staircase concentrates load at individual connection points — each tread is essentially a small cantilever beam, and the moment forces at the wall or stringer connection are significant.
For a wall-mounted cantilever, the steel bracket for each tread needs to resist both the vertical load (someone standing on the tread) and the rotational force that tries to peel the bracket out of the wall. That rotational force is what drives the wall reinforcement requirements. A single 2x6 stud won’t cut it. The framing behind a floating stair wall typically includes steel backing plates, doubled or tripled studs, and sometimes a continuous steel channel that ties all the bracket points together.
This is where the structural engineer comes in, and in BC, their involvement isn’t optional. Any cantilevered stair system needs an engineer’s stamp before a building permit is issued. The engineer calculates the loads at each tread connection, designs the wall reinforcement, specifies the bracket dimensions, and provides sealed drawings for the building department. That engineering package typically runs $2,000–$5,000 depending on the complexity of the system.
On a recent project in a new-build North Vancouver home, the structural engineer specified a 10mm steel plate continuous channel running the full height of the stair wall, with each cantilever bracket through-bolted to the channel. The channel was installed during framing — well before our staircase fabrication started — because it needed to be in place before the wall was closed up. That kind of coordination between the framing crew, the engineer, and the steel fabricator is typical for floating stair projects.
For hidden mono stringer systems, the engineering is different but equally involved. The stringer itself is a substantial steel beam — often a rectangular tube section 200mm or larger — and the connections at top and bottom need to handle the accumulated load of every tread plus the lateral forces from people walking on the stairs. The stringer’s connection to the floor structure and the upper landing needs to be rigid enough to prevent any perceptible flex or bounce.
BC Building Code requirements
Floating staircases are subject to the same BC Building Code requirements as any residential staircase. The code doesn’t have a separate section for floating stairs — it treats them as stairs, period. But some code requirements are harder to meet with a floating design, which is where careful detailing matters.
Tread dimensions. Minimum tread depth is 235mm (about 9.25 inches), measured from nosing to nosing. Maximum riser height is 200mm (7.9 inches), minimum 125mm (4.9 inches). These numbers aren’t unique to floating stairs, but they constrain the bracket spacing and the visual proportion of the treads. A thinner tread looks more dramatic, but it still needs to hit that 235mm depth.
Guardrails. Any staircase where the open side has a drop greater than 600mm needs a guard. Minimum guard height on a residential staircase is 900mm measured vertically from the nosing line. The guard can’t have openings that allow a 100mm sphere to pass through. And here’s the one that affects floating stair design most directly — the guard can’t have climbable elements between 100mm and 900mm above the treads. That rules out some horizontal bar designs that look good in photos but won’t pass a Vancouver building inspection.
Handrails. A graspable handrail is required on at least one side of any staircase with more than two risers. The handrail profile needs to be between 30mm and 43mm in diameter (or equivalent graspable shape), and it must be continuous for the full run of the stair. On a floating staircase with glass panel railings, the handrail is typically a stainless steel or wood cap mounted on top of the glass — it’s a separate element from the guard itself.
Structural loading. The code requires treads to support a concentrated load of 1.5 kN (about 340 lbs) at any point, plus a uniform load across the full tread area. The guard needs to resist a horizontal load of 0.5 kN per metre applied at the top. These are the numbers the structural engineer uses to size the brackets and the wall reinforcement.
What floating staircases cost in Metro Vancouver
A straight answer: most residential floating staircases in the Vancouver area run between $25,000 and $50,000 installed, with some projects going higher. That’s the full scope — structural engineering, steel fabrication, finishing, treads, railing, and installation.
Here’s how the cost breaks down by system type.
Wall-mounted cantilever (the most common residential system): $25,000–$40,000 for a straight run of 12–15 treads with hardwood treads and a cable or glass railing. The wall reinforcement and structural engineering add $5,000–$10,000 to what a conventional staircase would cost. If the project is a new build and the wall framing hasn’t been closed yet, the reinforcement cost is lower. Retrofitting a floating staircase into an existing wall — possible, but more expensive and sometimes structurally impractical.
Hidden central mono stringer: $35,000–$55,000+. The stringer itself is a more substantial steel fabrication than wall brackets, and concealing it within the floor structure or a bulkhead adds finishing cost. This system makes sense when there’s no suitable load-bearing wall, but the budget needs to reflect the added complexity.
Suspended cable or rod: $30,000–$50,000+ depending on span and overhead structure. The ceiling or beam that the rods anchor into needs to handle the full accumulated stair load in tension, which often means structural upgrades above. Not every building can accommodate this system without significant structural work.
These prices include C.W.B. certified fabrication to CSA W47.1 standards, professional powder coat or hot-dip galvanized finish on all steel, and installation by our crew. They don’t include permits (typically $500–$1,500 for a staircase scope in Metro Vancouver municipalities) or the structural engineer’s fee.
Why they cost more than conventional stairs
A standard steel stringer staircase with the same number of treads might run $12,000–$20,000. So the floating premium is roughly double. Where does the extra money go?
Structural engineering. A conventional staircase doesn’t always need a project-specific engineering stamp. A floating staircase always does. That’s $2,000–$5,000 before any steel is cut.
Wall or floor reinforcement. The concealed structure that makes the staircase “float” has to be built into the building frame. On new construction, this means coordination with the framing crew and sometimes heavier framing members. On renovations, it can mean opening walls and adding steel plates or channels — and then refinishing the wall.
More steel, more precisely fabricated. Each cantilever bracket or concealed connection needs to be fabricated to tight tolerances. A wall-mounted bracket that’s 5mm off doesn’t just look wrong — it creates a tread that’s visibly tilted. The shop time per connection is higher than on a conventional stringer system.
Installation time. Mounting individual cantilever brackets, levelling each one, and then installing treads and railings takes longer than bolting a stringer to the wall and dropping treads onto it. A conventional staircase install might take a day. A floating staircase install typically takes 3–5 days.
Tread and railing options
The steel structure is the engineering story. The treads and railings are the design story — and where homeowners and architects spend most of their decision-making time.
Tread materials. White oak and walnut are the most popular choices for residential floating stairs in Vancouver right now. Engineered hardwood (a solid wood wear layer over a plywood core) is more stable than solid timber in heated interior environments and works well for the 50–60mm thick treads that floating stairs typically need. Solid wood treads in that thickness are prone to cupping and checking unless the grain orientation and moisture content are carefully controlled. We’ve also fabricated floating stairs with concrete treads (precast, mounted on steel brackets), stone (granite and engineered quartz), and steel plate with anti-slip coating for commercial applications.
Tread thickness matters visually. A 40mm tread looks light and modern. A 75mm tread looks substantial and grounded. The bracket design changes to accommodate different tread thicknesses, so this decision needs to happen during engineering, not after the steel is fabricated.
Glass railings. Frameless tempered glass panels with stainless steel standoffs or a slim channel base are the most requested railing for floating staircases. They preserve the visual openness that the floating design creates. The glass is typically 12mm tempered or 10.38mm laminated, depending on the fall height and code requirements. Glass railings add $150–$300 per linear foot to the staircase cost.
Cable railings. Stainless steel cable infill with steel or wood posts. More affordable than glass ($100–$200 per linear foot) and still visually light. The horizontal cables do need to meet the 100mm sphere test, which means cable spacing of about 75mm on centre — tighter than some homeowners expect.
Minimalist steel railings. Thin flat bar posts with a slim steel or wood handrail and no infill below. This is the cleanest look, but it only works where the drop height is under 600mm (no guard required) or in combination with a glass panel that provides the actual guard function. A flat bar railing with no infill won’t pass inspection on any staircase with a significant fall height.
The timeline: 10–14 weeks from contract to completion
Floating staircases take longer than conventional stairs because of the coordination required between disciplines. Here’s what the schedule looks like on a typical residential project.
Weeks 1–3: Engineering and shop drawings. The structural engineer designs the bracket or stringer system and specifies the wall reinforcement. We produce shop drawings showing every steel component, tread mounting detail, and railing layout. Both sets of drawings need approval before fabrication starts.
Weeks 4–9: Fabrication and finishing. Steel brackets, stringers, and railing components are fabricated in our Burnaby shop. C.W.B. certified welding on every structural connection. After fabrication, the steel goes out for powder coating or galvanizing — typically a week in the finishing queue.
Weeks 10–14: Installation. Wall prep (if not already done during framing), steel mounting, tread installation, railing installation, and final adjustment. On new construction, the wall reinforcement happens months earlier during framing, so weeks 10–14 are focused on the visible components. On renovations, wall work may add time.
The critical coordination point is the wall reinforcement. On new builds, the reinforcement steel needs to be in place before drywall, which means the floating stair design has to be finalized during the framing stage — sometimes 4–6 months before the staircase itself is fabricated and installed. Homeowners who decide they want a floating staircase after the walls are already closed face a more expensive and disruptive retrofit process.
When a floating staircase makes sense — and when it doesn’t
Not every project is a good candidate. A floating staircase works best in new construction where the wall framing can be designed from the start to carry the cantilever loads. It works well in open-plan layouts where a conventional stringer would visually divide the space. And it’s worth the premium when the staircase is a focal point — the first thing you see when you walk in.
It’s a harder sell in renovations where the existing wall structure can’t handle cantilever loads without major reinforcement. It’s also not the right choice for secondary staircases that nobody sees, or for basement stairs where a conventional system does the job at half the cost.
We’ve fabricated floating staircases for projects across Metro Vancouver — from compact East Vancouver laneway homes where every square foot of visual space matters, to large custom builds in West Vancouver where the staircase is a sculptural centrepiece in a double-height entry. The engineering is the same regardless of the neighbourhood. The design intent is what changes.
If you’re considering a floating staircase for a project, the best time to start the conversation is during schematic design — before the framing package is finalized. The earlier the steel fabricator and structural engineer are involved, the cleaner the integration and the fewer surprises during construction. Request a quote or call our Burnaby shop and we’ll walk through what your project needs.
