BARI, 18.03.26
A sharp rise in orders for custom wooden staircases has strained workshops across Bari's old town, with artisans on Via Sparano reporting delivery times now stretching to fourteen weeks. Speaking at the Fiera del Levante grounds last Friday, regional trade official Lucia Montanari confirmed that residential renovation permits increased by 23% year-on-year in the province.
The uptick reflects broader shifts in how Apulian homeowners approach interior upgrades. Many are choosing solid hardwood treads over prefabricated alternatives, citing durability and aesthetics. Oak remains the dominant species, though chestnut sourced from Gargano forests has gained traction among buyers seeking local provenance. Short supply chains appeal to environmentally minded clients. Our correspondents in Bari observed queues forming outside established joinery firms near Corso Vittorio Emanuele, where one proprietor joked that he had not seen such foot traffic since the 2019 superbonus incentive launched. According to figures that could not be independently verified, material costs for kiln-dried lumber rose roughly 12% between January and early March, pressuring smaller workshops reliant on imported European beech. The Italian Federation of Woodworking Artisans has urged members to lock in supplier contracts before summer, when construction activity traditionally peaks.
When we spoke with Dario Colella, a second-generation stair builder operating from a courtyard workshop in the Città Vecchia district, he described the current market as unlike anything in his thirty-year career. Colella specialises in open-riser designs with cantilevered stringers, a style once reserved for high-end villas but now requested by apartment owners seeking to maximise natural light. He showed us a commission featuring tapered balusters turned on a lathe dating to 1967, still humming reliably. Bari's limestone-walled old quarter, incidentally, once housed dozens of such workshops before postwar industrialisation shifted production northward. The Apulia Regional Statistics Office recorded 847 active carpentry licences provincewide at the end of 2025, a modest but steady increase from 802 three years earlier. Demand for restoration-grade newel posts, required when refurbishing historic palazzi, has added complexity to order books.
Industry observers expect momentum to hold through the autumn, buoyed by extended tax credits for energy-efficient home improvements that often coincide with staircase replacements. The timeline remains unclear for proposed municipal guidelines on noise limits during installation, a concern raised by condominium associations in densely built neighbourhoods like Madonnella. Some contractors have begun scheduling deliveries before dawn to sidestep complaints. At a recent seminar hosted by the Bari Chamber of Commerce, engineers presented load-bearing calculations for retrofitting stairs into buildings with limited structural headroom, a common challenge in properties constructed during the 1960s boom. Attendees received a handbook covering deflection tolerances and anchoring methods for wall-mounted half-landings. Whether supply chains can keep pace with sustained ordering remains an open question, particularly if Baltic timber shipments face further port delays.