American Stair and Rail Artisans

Terrible business. Beware, you can message me and I will show you photos and give you further information as well as my phone number to verify I have this company is the most unreliable unprofessional business who does not stand by their work. I was promised a visit to remedy the mess they made and they never showed up on the day they were supposed to and have not returned any phone calls. I now have an attorney dealing with this matter.

Renee and Lauren were amazing to work with! I shopped around and received the best quote from them for what I wanted. They also stayed within my budget. They provided me with tons of ideas and photos to help me choose and were patient with all my requests for changes. Then Carmine came in and brought our vision to light...he was a perfectionist and I had little disruption and he kept my house clean. All in all great experience and they made it FUN!!

Fantastic craftsmanship! Peter knew just what I needed for durability and aesthetics. The traditional style railings and bannister are perfect! Will definitely contact them again for future railings.

I can’t thank Renee and Steven enough for sending an amazing team to transform my rails! Mike and Brad were great! They were punctual, professional and neat! They left my house immaculate and transformed my foyer with their craftsmanship and style! They even adjusted my basement rails to make them safe for my girls! ♥️

Very good.

They were excellent from start to finish.

Very professional. Excellent workmanship .

Very pleased.  Did a meticulous job and it came out perfect.

I am not sure why someone would give a company an F for not responding.  touchy, touchy.  My experience with American Stairs was good - their professionalism was the high point, and they were punctual and efficient.  The job was rather simple but they went slightly above and beyond and got an additional part to reinforce without charging me.  That was a nice touch, even though it was a small part.  I've already recommended them to others in the area.

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In February 2014 we received a reasonable estimate from American Stair and Rail to re-tread our staircase with oak treads and risers, as well as replace the railings and balusters. We also agreed to provide wood flooring for our two landings to be installed by them (labor quoted in estimate).
We signed the contract were told the job would take two days and was slated to start on March 5th.
They started the job a day late on the 6th which wasn?t that big of a deal, however they never called to confirm the dates as they said they would, we had to call them. On the morning of the 6th the installer showed up to start the job. After walking through the project, he threw a curve ball at us by saying ?we don?t really do flooring?.
The job wound up taking 5 days to complete, not 2. On day 1, after the materials delivered, I noticed they had delivered white risers as opposed to the oak ones we paid for. Had I not caught that it could have been a bigger issue if he started installing them. Additionally, there were several other instances where the incorrect or insufficient materials were delivered to us and the installer waited around for hours at times doing nothing, he said it was typical. With the lack of progress after two days of work, I opted to install the hardwood floor myself over the weekend, since they ?don?t really do flooring? anyway.
Another major issue was the area where the starter (1st step) meets the tile floor, it was supposed to be built out large enough to cover the old starter step footprint, it was not, and I had to request molding to cover the gap. That was provided incorrectly twice, they don?t install it either. Ultimately, I made a template myself and went to their shop and waited for them to cut the molding then installed it myself. This was also initially met with a nasty response from Renee since I withheld the final payment until I received the correct molding. American Stair and Rail says that all their installers are ?Master Craftsmen? but I later learned from Renee that another reason for the delay is that the installer had ?trouble with the angles?.
Throughout the job the installer had loads of negative things to day about American Stair and Rail and the owners. He was clearly frustrated with the place. One policy he kept bringing up was the fact that each installer is treated more like a subcontractor in that they are assigned a job and they own it. It is up to them to get it done and follow up if anything goes wrong, they are paid for each job similar to a subcontractor. He also said it was not uncommon for a homeowner to be told a period much shorter than what it would realistically take the one installer to do (another thing he mentioned?{his words} was typically one installer is assigned no matter the job).
In the end the project was completed, but not to the standards they lead you to believe it would be. The major issue was the angle that the installer had trouble with, we didn?t notice it at first, at the curve in the pie shaped step the balusters are not in-line because the angle of the railing was not cut to match the angle of the step (as it was originally).
To that point we were not pleased with American Stair and Rail, but the job was done and the steps looked good after I applied stain and polyurethane.
HERE IS WHY I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND THEM:
In June, a section of the railing had separated. Their contract guarantees the craftsmanship for 1 year. I called and spoke to Sue who said they would call me back and get someone over to look at it. Later that day Sue called back and said they would get back to us to schedule someone to come out. Two weeks later, after not hearing from them, I called and was told they would look into it and call me back?no call back. A week later, I called them again and they said they told our original installer to call me back and would follow-up with him. A week after that I spoke to Renee and she apologized and said I have your number in front of me and she or the installer would get back to me before 4PM that day. THAT WAS SIX WEEKS AGO AND NO CALL BACK.
Save yourself the headaches of dealing with their hot and cold attitude and their disgruntled employees and look elsewhere for a more professional contractor who will stand behind their work!

 We are extremely pleased with our new stairs. Our house has a completely new and modern look and the stairs are up to code and safe. Renee Brown assisted me at the showroom. She helped me confirm that my choices in ballusters, handrail, wood, etc. were the right choices for our style home. Steven Brown answered all my questions about building codes, and advised me we would need an electrician before work started. They arranged all of this for me. Steven came out to my home 3 times, once to give me an estimate, once to do measuring and provide contract and once during the job to see how things were going.

The company started the work when the contract stated. The work took about as long as they estimated - about 4-5 days. The job wasn't easy - under our existing stairs are AC duct work, gas lines, and storage/closets. The old stairs were hard to tear down. But there was good communication during the work and updates as to what would be done each day so I knew what to expect. I have no complaints about the way the work was done. The job was expensive, but it was worth the price. I would not hesitate to recommend them.

I was treated with professional service from my first contact with them. The gentleman who came to measure the job answered all my questions. The office kept me informed of my order and my installation date. The Railings were installed by Carmine, who did and excellent job.

Our house was built in 1900. The original treads and risers of the main stairway of our house were finally failing. We obtained various quotes from other competitors, but none seemed to really have the skills set or the understanding to address the issues of repairing this older home's stairway.  The owner Steve came to our home to review our options and gave us an estimate on the spot.  We contracted with him for the rebuilding, and have not regretted our decision. Their employees Mike and his assistant showed up on time and on the appointed day. They had to access the structure of the stairs from the basement, opening the ceiling leading from the basement, the landing, and the second floor. All the while, not a speck of debris as they worked cleanly and efficiently. Within a few hours, our stairway was transformed from a rickety, bouncy structure, to a safe, solid and well rebuilt stairway. We thank everyone at this company for their great work and excellent customer service. We will need to rebuild our basement stairs, and we will be contracting with American Stair and Rail Artisans in the near future.

Estimate was clear and salesperson was helpful and no pressure. Price was not cheap but work was completed as promised, on time, and in a high quality manner. They had to re-schedule at last minute for install but were very apologetic and came the next day. Installer was on time, friendly, and did excellent work. Would absoultely use again.

Contracted and paid in full on 2/21/2013.  Was contacted with install date of 3/12/2013.  Install date changed as installers were going on vacation.  New install date was 3/19/2013.  Stairs installed but surrounding stud walls were not built.  Additionally, nose of stairs did not meet with the stair landing, leaving a gap and the bottom of stairs did not meet with wall to wall carpeting, leaving another gap.  Informed company.  Said they would take care of it.  Numerous calls only got excuses.  Took almost 2 months to get installers back out.  One stud wall was built and stair nose replaced.  We later had to make corrections to their connection of the studs to the stairs.  We still have to deal with the gap between the stairs and the carpeting.
Later when the drywall was being installed, it was determined that the stairs had not been centered in the stairwell.  They had to be disconnected, centered and then reinstalled.

. I would recommend them to anyone. Excellent customer service and incredible installers. Job Well Done!

After having SEVERAL other contractors tell us that the railing couldn't be matched, or just refusing to do the job because it wasn't "big" enough... we finally got a very reasonable estimate from American Stair & Rail... and had a good impression of Peter who estimated the job. He seemed knowledgeable and offered lots of suggestions about how we could possibly widen the railing in places where it was too narrow to move furniture upstairs. We couldn't be more pleased with the final results... American Stair matched the spindles of the original staircase PERFECTLY and even the hand rail which others told us couldn't be matched. Bob, who did the carpentry work, is a true craftsman. I never thought they would have been able to make the rickety part of the railing sturdy again, but now it's as sturdy as a mac truck!
The only thing that American Stair & Rail couldn't do (and they were up front about this from the very first estimate) was match the newel post caps which look like they were originally made custom for our staircase. But even then, Rene and Susan bent over backwards to try to find a good match... and when it couldn't be done, they provided us with all new matching caps for the whole staircase, and also gave us some suggestions for millworkers in case we ever wanted to have custom matching caps made at a later time.
American Stair and Rail represents the type of old school artisans and family-style run businesses that are unfortunately all too rare these days. I HIGHLY recommend them.