Can we talk non-carpeted stairs?

[pumpkin]

I live in a townhouse and am considering replacing all the carpet on my main level with hardwood or something. (Haven't started the research yet, but there'll be more questions to come)

However, if I do that then I also need to do the stairs between the entry and main level and maybe the stairs to the upper level too. But I don't know how I feel about uncarpeted stairs and have slipped on them enough as they are. Do most people do stair runner things on/down the stairs? I really have no idea but know you ladies are great at this stuff. So what's up/what do you have/what would you do/etc?

[allhis]

FWIW, doing hardwood on stairs is very pricey, as you probably know. Several orders of magnitude more than on floors.
I love the look of wood but our stairs are used most by our kids so I wanted to limit falls. In both our last home and new one we went with wool carpet for the stairs and absolutely love it. Unlike regular nylon carpet it doesn’t show any wear marks. It holds up very well to high traffic and it’s just plain pretty. Our current carpet is a soft tan/cream full loop. Our former was gray/cream herringbone. Both Godfrey hirst brand. I can show pics if interested. To me it was the perfect compromise between hardwood and carpet in terms of both cost and durability.

[bittybomb]

We just gut renovated our entire house. Our floors are oak hardwood and our stairs are pine. Neither needed replacing but we did sand and stain. Prior to the renovation we had a stair runner and I thought we’d do that again. But so far I’m loving the look of the wood stairs. So we are torn. The house has been completely done for about 3 months now and we have had no issues with slipping on the stairs with 5 people in the house - me, my husband, and our 10,8, and 7 year olds. I do have still to do some window coverings and area rugs throughout the house so we haven’t for sure ruled it out, but I sure am leaning that way. Nice, clean, simple look. If anything I would do a runner on each step and not up the treads, we we had previously.

[Velar Fricative]

I hate walking down any kind of bare stairs so I’m pro-carpet or runner. We have carpet and plan to stick with it forever (well, not the same carpet, just replacing with new carpet when the time comes). We have kids but I’m also clumsy so I just get nervous on bare stairs.

[mrsukyankee]

We have hardwood floors on the entire ground floor but the stairs are carpeted fully. I think it's fine that way.

[pumpkin]

See here's the issue with the 1st flight of stairs. My tiled entry and garage are on the ground/1st floor. Then stairs to the main level which I want to uncarpet. So theoretically I need to also uncarpet the 1st flight of stairs too.

[k3am]

We have hardwood stairs with no runners on them. I like the look.

We haven’t had issues with tripping, falling, or sliding on them, and it hasn’t been much of a concern. And I’m the woman who broke a foot going down a single step.

[InBetweenDays]

We also have hardwood stairs with no runners and have never had an issue with slipping. With certain kinds of carpet I actually find carpet to be more slippery than hardwood.

I will say, though, that when our dog got older he had a really hard time with the wood stairs. We had to get the temporary carpeted treads to put down to give him traction.

[penguingrrl]

We have hardwood floors with no runner. If I’m being honest I find carpet far more slippery than my hardwood stairs. We haven’t had an issue ever.

[hbomdiggity]

I hate carpeted stairs of any kind. I find them more slippery and they are a complete pita to clean. I have never slipped or fallen on hardwood stairs.

[dottyblue]

Another fully-hardwood stairs person here who much prefers it. I have two young kids and we have had no issues with slipping on the stairs. Runners and carpet get filthy and I would seriously consider getting rid of them in the main area of the house.

That said, I just carpeted our stairs to the (unheated, concrete floor) basement. The cost to convert to wood stairs did not make sense. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Velar Fricative]

I have no idea how carpet could feel slippery lol.

[Pibs]

Our stairs are hardwood. I don't think the hardwoods in our house are especially nice or pretty and our old lady dog has never been especially graceful so we put down carpet stair treads with rubber backing. It gives her more confidence on the stairs because she can see them better and keeps her from slipping. Our stairs lead from the garage to our main living level so I don't think we'll ever carpet them or put down a full runner -- the treads are great because they can just be tossed in the washer when needed.

[candreco]

Oct 5, 2019 18:58:22 GMT -5 k3am said:

We have hardwood stairs with no runners on them. I like the look.

We haven’t had issues with tripping, falling, or sliding on them, and it hasn’t been much of a concern. And I’m the woman who broke a foot going down a single step.

Same here (except the broken foot, ouch!).  Honestly I think I've slipped way more times on carpeted stairs than bare wood.

Our house is a split level, so the stairs go a half flight up and a half flight down from our front door, with tile on the landing in between.  Carpet would be trashed so fast there.  

[Wallflower]

The odds of slipping on wood vs. carpet may depends on what you wear around the house.

Last year, I pulled up the carpet on my stairs. While I worried at first, I think I feel more safe, but I also am barefoot 99% of the time. I think I get a bit of a grip on the stairs that I didn't feel like I had in the carpet.

[thatgirl2478]

we have hardwood on the stairs. we put them in when we had the wood floors put in the 2nd floor. i don't know that they are any more or less slippery than the carpet that was there before... I did fall down them, but that was less of a trip/slip and more of a missed a stair with my foot (would have happened with carpet too).

[dr.girlfriend]

We have hardwood stairs. The only time I've had issues was more stumbling over my own feet than slipping. They are nice deep steps, though, I feel like I've almost slipped a few times on the basement stairs just because they are so steep and shallow.

[carmenere]

We have hardwood stairs. I don't have an issue with slipping myself, but our dogs sometimes do and the little one can't climb the stairs because there's not enough traction. Eventually I want to install a stair runner but we have a lot of other things to tackle first.

[Deleted]

We have hardwood stairs with no runner. I like the look. I can't think of anyone having slipped or fallen in the 4+ years that we've lived here. Plus, the hallway at the top of the stairs is hardwood and at the bottom of the stairs is tile, so I don't think carpet/runner would like right in my case.

[CrazyLucky]

We have hardwood stairs, just bare. My not super-coordinated 9 year old son has never slipped on them. I like the way they look. But the all of our common spaces are hardwood, and so I think it would look weird if we had carpeting just on the stairs.

[TBM]

At our old house we removed the carpet and added oak treads since it was just builder grade boards that weren't meant to show. It felt and looked so much cleaner, and was much less slippery than when we had carpet.

We were usually barefoot or in socks, and slipped on the carpeted steps all the time, but I have wondered if the treads were too narrow or something, and we just hit the edge or something.

[bhnumbers]

I kind of think it depends on the stairs. At our old house, we had plain wood stairs, no runner/carpet. It was a newer house than the one we have now--the stairs were well-lit and standard size. In our house now, originally built in the 1940s, the stairs are narrow , dark, and the rise is a little bit off from standard. Before we renovated, we didn't have them carpeted the kids and I each slipped several times. Fortunately, we didn't really get hurt, but it happened enough that we decided that after our renovation we would add a runner. And since we've done that, no one has slipped. And, bonus, I love my pretty runner

[af1212]

I have had hardwood stairs with a runner, stairs with tread mats, and stairs with nothing.

I have three kids and have had them in the house with the house with the tread mats and nothing. I do not think that falling was at all different between the three sets of stairs.

We had a rule when the kids were little and learning on stairs that they were not allowed to go up and down in socks. Bare feet or Shoes only.

[sandandsea]

I love bare hardwood stairs. When we put HW floors in we really wanted to do the stairs to match but it was going to be at least $15k more than replacing the carpet. So we replaced the carpet on the stairs and honestly just the new carpet made it look way better. I do love the hw stairs look.

[tres3]

We have bare hard wood stairs. I keep thinking I'm going to add a runner. They just aren't safe. It is hard for the dog coming down the stairs and the kids slip fairly regularly.

[gummybear]

We just did ours this summer. We did wait until our dog passed because she would have never managed. I've had (much younger) other dogs in the house and they seem OK, but not great on them. We are very careful about them as slipping was my biggest fear. I rarely if ever have just socks on, nor do my kids or husband. Either shoes (ugh), house slippers or bare feet which at least have a little grip. The aesthetic upgrade has been worth every penny.