The company’s Nuneaton factory has a weekly capacity of 550 stairs and the new facility opening at Wednesbury, near junction 10 of the M6, this month this will potentially increase this volume to 750 stairs per week.
Anticipating the pick-up in the housebuilding market, Staircraft began planning the new factory in January last year and will be running at full capacity by the fourth quarter of 2014 or sooner.
The new facility will create 25 jobs and be the central location for Staircraft’s "Integrated Solutions" design department streamlining the integration of the stair component into the I-joist floor system. It has been working with timber engineering specialists C4Ci on this project and the integrated software and chosen the Boise Cascade product as the preferred I-joist.
"There can be a lot of problems in the connection between the stairs and the floor zone. They are the only structural timber elements that fit together in a brick and block house and getting them wrong is costly," said commercial director Aaron Campbell.
Cost leaks occur through multiple design changes, but also when changes are not communicated properly resulting in extra costs on site when the two elements don’t fit.
"We wanted to take more ownership of that connection so that we know that the stairs will fit and be easy to install," said Mr Campbell.
Staircraft’s staircases are supplied to site as a precision manufactured kit of parts for ease of installation, and Mr Campbell believes the company’s move into I-joist floors will offer another time-saving solution for its national housebuilder customers.
"It will improve productivity, which is all-important to housebuilders," he said.
