Stair Carpet

Anyone who uses stairs knows that carpet stair treads can be potentially lethal if they are not properly secured. Who has not walked down a flight of carpeted stairs at one point or another and suddenly had a slight slipping sensation? In addition to the foregoing, a carpet stair runner that is inexpertly installed over a stair carpet that might not have been secured as well as it should have been further ads a risk of slippage.

Nonetheless, installing carpet on stairs is not as hard as it may sound, and with a little bit of effort, some basic know how, and the right tools you, too, will be able to learn how to carpet stairs.

To begin with, make sure that you have a roll of carpet that is wide enough to go from one side of the stair to the other. Ideally, this roll should be commercially cut, so that you do not end up with a narrowing – or widening – roll as you proceed in your job. The same is true for the under padding, although some individuals like to use leftover padding. This might be a mistake, especially if the pieces are too small and thus will not provide you with the continuous kind of coverage over the stairs that you would like. Furthermore, carpeting stairs over padding that has been installed piecemeal may result in stair carpet showing indentations after a few weeks or months of use.

As you get started, first roll out and secure the padding to the stairs with the help of staples. Next, install tack strips that are specifically made for use on stairs. Sure, you can use the regular strips, but the carpet variety offers a doubly secure hold. As you carpet stair tread, make sure that you avoid any pouching or even slight looseness of the material when you move from the tread and upward the riser itself – if you do, your stair carpet will shift over time and feel as though the stair treads were made of carpet that is uneven.

Carpet protectors for stairs are sometimes installed on top of stair carpet, but this leads to the stair tread carpet being somewhat slippery, since most of these items are either thin carpet runners for stairs or made of plastic. If you do opt for a stair runner carpet, it is imperative that you factor this in when you install carpet on stairs, so that you will have ample room to secure carpet stair runners either with staples, or rods. As you can see, installing stair carpet is not that hard, if you use the right equipment, measure twice and cut only once!