Stairs in older Ottawa houses

Ottawa has a great deal of housing from before the Second World War, and a lot of it still has its original turned stair. That is the good news. It is also the reason this shop exists, because those parts were made to pattern books that stopped being printed, and the baluster you broke on a Saturday is usually the only one of its kind left in the house.

Why a match is hard to buy

Three things go wrong when you try to replace a single turned part from stock, and any one of them will show.

• The profile is wrong. Two balusters can be the same height and the same species and still look nothing alike, because the beads sit at different heights and the vase is fatter or thinner. Next to the originals, it reads as a substitute immediately.
• The proportions are wrong. Stock parts are made to suit modern rail heights. An old staircase often wants a baluster that is a different length, with the turned section sitting lower or higher than the modern part does.
• The species is wrong, or right but new. A new oak baluster beside an oak baluster that has been darkening since before you were born will look pale, and it will keep looking pale for years.

What we do instead

We measure the original, draw it, and turn the replacement from that drawing. Not from a photograph of a similar baluster, and not from the nearest stock profile: from your part. If you can bring it in, that is a measurement; if you can only photograph it, that is usually enough, and we will tell you which one you have before you spend anything.

Before you come in

If the part is already off the staircase, bring it. If it is still on, do not take it apart: a photograph will do, and we would rather you keep your staircase in one piece.

• One photograph, straight on, whole part in the frame.
• One dimension you are certain of. The width across a square block is the usual choice, because a tape sits flat on it.
• Roughly how many you need, if you already know.
• Whether you want them unfinished, or finished to match what is there now.

Where we are

We’re Kessels’ own spindle shop, on Colonnade Road in Nepean, in the same building as Henderson Furniture Repair, which has been repairing Ottawa furniture since 1947. Between the two of us we’ve seen most of what the city’s older houses can throw at a piece of wood, which is why one broken baluster doesn’t worry us.

No appointment is needed during business hours, and there is nothing to pay for walking in and asking.

What we will not do

We won't tell you a replacement is original. A faithful copy of an old part is still a new part, and anyone who says otherwise is selling you something. What we can do is get it close enough that nobody notices, and tell you straight how close that's going to be before you pay for it.