Worrying evidence about poor stair manufacturing and procurement practice and a lack of understanding about technical requirements have been highlighted by the British Woodworking Federation (BWF).

The BWF said it intended to develop a response on behalf of the industry because of the anecdotal evidence.

It said confusion existed about which standards apply to timber stairs, as the main British Standard is out of date, and standards for load-bearing and deflection were largely ignored.

“For the BWF, this is a situation which cannot be allowed to continue,” it said.

“There have been several instances where our members have lost business as a direct consequence of refusing to supply stairs to a sub-standard specification, including one particularly worrying case where a BWF member lost out to a competitor on a contract for a fire-resistant stair,” said BWF technical manager Kevin Underwood.

Mr Underwood said the competititor’s stair was not supplied factory pre-treated, with fire retardant supplied separately – something he said should never be attempted by the inexperienced or outside controlled factory conditions.