Second-Story Landing & Stair Glass Railing

This Fresno home was solid, but the wood balustrade around the upstairs landing darkened the entry and broke up the upper floor.

The brief

The owner, a real-estate investor getting the property ready to show, wanted the staircase and upstairs landing modernized without the timeline or budget of a full remodel: more light, open sightlines across the upper floor, and a finish that photographs well.

What we did

• The old balustrade came out first, with treads and flooring protected during demo
• Templated the landing runs and stair angle on site for exact-fit panels
• Fabricated tempered safety-glass panels custom to each run
• Frameless clamp-mounted glass went in around the landing and stair opening, with a stainless handrail on the stair run
• A full walkthrough closed out the job: hardware checked, glass cleaned, site left tidy

The result

The upper floor reads as one open space now. Daylight from the arched window carries across the landing and down the stairwell instead of stopping at a wall of spindles, and the loft looks straight through the glass to the floor below. That staircase used to be the most dated part of the house. Now it's the feature people comment on.