The simplest of staircases is a staright flight of steps running up from one floor to the another, but where your space is limited you can change the direction of the staircase with one or more intermediate landings between the two floors. There is a number of types of staircase that you can build yourself or have made to order.

The main types of staircase are:

• The dog leg
• The open well
• The quarter turn
• The half turn

Most domestic stairs use newel posts in their construction, and are known as "newel stair". Stairs of this type  usually have parrallel sided treads and although tapered treads, known as "winders" are sometimes used at the top or bottom of the stairs in order to turn a corner.

Each step of an ordinary straight flight of wooden stairs is made from two boards: the vertical riser, which forms the front of the step, and the horizontal tread on which you walk. The riser is a stiffening member and is fixed between two treads, giving support to the front edge of one and the rear of the other.

Treads and risers may be butt jointed together, or joined with housings or tongue and groove joints. Triangular blocks glued into the angles between the risers and treads reinforce the joint to provide greater stiffness.

Open tread stairs have thick treads but no risers. Inorder to comply with the building regulations, metal tie rods or wooden rails must be fitted horizontally between open treads to restrict the vertical gapto less than 1000mm (4in).