Carpeting stairs?

I’m considering carpeting an enclosed run of stairs between my ground and parlor floors. I’d like a utility grade low pile carpeting with padding, probably installed across the whole step instead of just down the center. Has anyone done this recently and do you have a ballpark number for purchase, delivery and installation? Does anyone have a recommendation for vendors (or a strong warning against a vendor or installer)? Has anyone done it themselves?

catbk

in Brownstoner Renovation 12 years and 1 month ago

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jeanmarine2 | 12 years and 1 month ago

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Just to throw this option out there – I’m becoming a big fan of FLOR carpet tiles – now, I wouldn’t use them for a full runner but I’m probably going to buy a handful of carpet tiles, cut them in half and use a half-tile for each stair tread, and use adhesive to make sure the tiles stick, so it’s a relatively cheap way of getting carpeting on stairs – and what I love is, the tiles we would use cost $10-$20 or so per tile, so each stair is $5-$10, and we have about 13 stairs, so I’m figuring under $150 for our staircase – we have old cats that tend to, uh, get sick on our bedding (yuck) and I fully expect the same on the carpet tiles we’re buying for our bedrooms and living room (first time we have had carpeting in many years), so this way we can pull up a tile, wash it and if absolutely needed swap out the tile for a new one without having to chuck the whole carpet.  We just pulled up wall to wall carpeting on one floor and along the stairs, for that reason (plus it was getting trashed in a renovation anyway), but didn’t want to lose the carpeting entirely.  And for our living areas I’m basically creating custom carpeting using different colors, thicknesses and patterns of Flor tiles – and if I don’t like what I create, I can pick them up and re-create them or move them room to room, it’s not particularly cheap when all is said and done, but it’s a lot of fun and really versatile… (I have no affiliation with Flor by the way, just really enjoying putting together custom carpets using varieties of carpet tiles right now)

brokelin | 12 years and 1 month ago

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I’m not sure what you mean by low pile carpet, but my coop did all our stairs with commercial grade carpet made of nylon (if I am remembering the material right – it was definitely all synthetic, which made it easy to clean – Long Island Carpet Cleaners did it well and cheaply every year or so.). It worked great for our stairs – you are much less likely to slip on the commercial stuff than on the stuff made for living rooms. We used one of the major places on Atlantic Ave (been awhile, forget the name), and were quite pleased. Be sure to call them back again after a few weeks to tighten it up – it comes loose after a bit of use after initial installation. They didn’t tell us about this, but came back after we called and did that for free, only then telling us it is always necessary. Price was surprisingly affordable, so perhaps commercial carpet is cheaper…been awhile, over a decade, so price no longer relevant to note.

Stonergut | 12 years and 1 month ago

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Thanks for all of your answers! Very helpful.

scarter | 12 years and 1 month ago

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I just recently fully carpeted my stairs from my ground to parlor and it was $500 w/ install empire.  I used a low pile carpet.

elbow | 12 years and 1 month ago

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About 2 years ago we did runners and a couple of area rugs for 1st floor and Basement in our 4 story + basement co-op.  We had broadloom cut to runner width and trimmed.  Nice padding throughout.  It ran a little under $5k.  We used Better Carpet Warehouse on Atlantic Ave and were pleased with their work.

mousta | 12 years and 1 month ago

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I’ve done this on the cheap myself. I rigged it using basic runners i bought on overstock.com. I had to cut them and hide the seams where the stairs meet. It would definitely be easier to use one long piece of runner but I found those to be very expensive for anything that was decent quality or mildly attractive. All you need are tack strips, carpet pad and a staple gun. I would highly recommend a pneumatic staple gun. I did the first one with a manual staple gun. It was painful and took a long time. The next one took much less time with the compressor powered gun. There are lots of tutorials on youtube. It’s not terribly hard but it’s work.

anotherposter | 12 years and 1 month ago

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The previous owner did this to our stairs just before selling, so I don’t know the costs, but I like having it.  Our last place had bare wood stairs and I definitely prefer the carpeted stairs.  It is much safer (I tended to slip on the wood ones), quieter, and the dog is more comfortable using the carpeted stairs.  The only downside is keeping them clean–the bare wood wins there.  If we ever replace this, I will go with a darker color to hide things better;  it’s currently light beige and that shows everything and all the little bits of leaf or stick that end up inside end up stuck on the stairs.