Stair carpet

[SkippettyDoDah]

We've never had a stair carpet but realising that polished wood is not suitable for visiting parents. Any advice on dos and don'ts? I am guessing that patterns are a bad idea as they might make it difficult to gauge depth and have heard sisal can be slippy but any other tips?

Probably ok if they have grippy slippers.

Do you mean bare wood? The problem is that they don't like it which makes them less confident and I'm worried that if they slip it's a much harder landing than carpet with a soft underlay.

Don’t get a flat weave carpet, we have it and it is slippery. Twist pile is probably the most non slip, followed by loop.

That's really helpful, thanks. We don't have carpet anywhere so I feel a bit lost on where to start.

I don’t think patterns are necessarily worse. A plain carpet is just an expanse of colour, but a large pattern will show breaks in the pattern at each stair edge. .

Good point. I guess it depends on the type. Something like herringbone seems to make it difficult.to see the step going down

Is their footwear not more important than whether you have carpet? Care home bans ‘slide’ slippers, crocs etc and encourage washable sketchers or formal slippers.
Have them well lit. Do they need to go upstairs/ downstairs to reach bathroom?

Yes, footwear is super important but that's pretty sorted. What we need now is to make the stairs themselves safer.