If you have exposed wooden stairs (with or without a runner)

[WellTidy]

... are they noisy? I live in a family of elephants (I am if course as dainty as a daisy myself) and they are all very heavy footed. We live in an Edwardian house and I am thinking of redecorating the hall, stairs and landing. I am wondering whether to take away the carpet from the stirs and have them stripped back to the wood and then paint them and put a runner on.

If you have a runner, then it shouldn’t be dissimilar to carpet for noise level.

We’ve got bare wood and we did in the last house. We’ve never found it a problem but tend to wear thick socks or slippers in the house. I expect that if you wear outside shoes, it could be pretty noisy on the stairs.

Very noisy with shoes on, noisy if heavy footed and stompy. With slippers and walking normally its not bad but not as quiet as it would be with a runner or carpet. Planning to carpet ours soon because my dainty 3yr old somehow manages to sound like an 18 stone construction worker in steel capped boots when making her way upstairs.

We have a wooden staircase in an old house (1750), and the staircase is open (attached photo as difficult to explain). It does indeed sound like a herd of elephants when anyone is going up or down.

We have wooden stairs (no runner) I don't find it noisy but then we don't run up and down the stairs all day. If the kids have friends over and they are running up and down it does get a bit noisy but it would sound like a herd of elephants with carpet anyway.

Wooden staircase, no runner. Shoes off household. Stairs start in living room. You can even hear the cat run down them unless he's being sneaky. You don't hear him going up
Stairs get very dirty (mainly cat fur and coffee spills) and I wouldn't carpet them again.

We have an Edwardian with oak staircase and galleried landing. There is a runner with stairrods on the stairs. If there wasn't it would be noisy and the noise would reverberate through the whole house. Hoovering the stair carpet is no big deal.

Edwardian house that should read.

Thanks for the replies. We wear shoes indoors sometimes, I wonder if we could get out of the habit. I will have a think!

Our wooden staircase is steep enough that the loudest sounds as someone climbs it is heavy breathing.

Ours just polished wood, no runners.

They are clunky-noisy with shoes on although we tend not to wear shoes in the house. They are creaky-noisy regardless of shoes but that’s probably because the house is old. They are ridiculously slippery and I wish we had runners on them.

Painted stairs and I live alone so noise not an issue. Two problems- they are slippery and fluff magnets.

I hope you live in a detached house. If not you may end up under the neighbours' patio,

Where's the 'like' button when you need it!

Yes, we are detached. I am thinking about insulation - noise and heat. I will probably go for carpet!