Refurbishing the stairwell: the most visible project in a building

It is the only project every owner will see every day. It is also the least prepared.

Yellowed paint, worn floors, poor lighting, mismatched letterboxes: halls and stairwells age slowly and quietly. Nobody calls for urgent works, and the subject returns every year without ever being voted.

Yet it is the project with the best ratio of cost to perceived effect: it changes the impression the building gives, it weighs on unit values, and it is the only one every occupant walks through several times a day.

Do not stop at the paint

A stairwell refurbishment reduced to freshening the walls is a missed opportunity: most of the cost lies in setting up, protection and access, not in the product applied. Dealing with the rest at the same time costs far less than coming back.

• Lighting: sensor control, better distributed fittings, levels suited to landings and steps.
• Floors and stair nosings, the leading fall factor in a building.
• Handrails, to be renewed or extended.
• Letterboxes, often ancient and mismatched.
• Signage: floor numbering, access plan, statutory notices.
• Flat doors on the common side, whose appearance belongs to the association.

The two accessibility items — lighting and handrail — cost little and change daily life for older residents: see building accessibility.

Preparing the vote

A common-area refurbishment rarely fails on the principle: it fails on a figure presented without context. Preparation therefore means making the spending comparable and staged.

• Have two or three levels of specification priced, from bare minimum to full project.
• Present the cost per unit and per month, not just the headline figure.
• Show the current state in photographs: what everyone sees without noticing.
• State the duration and how things will work during the works.
• Say what will not be done, to avoid misunderstandings at handover.

The comparison method is in comparing quotes with confidence, the funding in funding major works.

The right moment

A stairwell is refurbished after the works that cross it, never before. Replacing risers, running fibre, redoing electrics or modernising a lift will necessarily damage the finishes.

So check what is in the multi-year works plan before voting the paint. See also electrical rising mains and fibre deployment.

During and after

Works in a common area are lived daily: tell occupants the schedule, the inaccessible areas and the hours. A one-page note prevents most of the friction.

And at the end, hold a real handover with reservations: on this kind of project defects are visible and easy to have put right — see works handover.

Repainting a stairwell before replacing the risers means paying twice for the same paint.

Prepare the project with CoproHarmony

CoproHarmony gathers photos of the existing state, compared quotes, meeting decisions and site tracking through to clearance of reservations. Create your free space.