Tiles on Wooden Staircase

[ComfortFoodCorner]

We are having the carpet removed from the staircase. Thinking of tiling the staircase, not sure if tiles fit well on wooden steps. I don't clean my house regularly, when I get to it, its really hard work cleaning the wooden staircase and the wooden spindles. As the staircase is next to the open kitchen, they dust gets sticky quite quickly. I wish to have glass balustrades, but its over the budget now. So at least a tiled steps would be easy to clean I feel. Have anyone tiled over their wooden staircase, would you recommend? Also any tips on cleaning the spindles

I think my main concern would be slipping especially if you don’t clean regularly - because dirt and grease can get slippery pretty quickly on tile. But I suppose it might be ok if you tile just the risers Spanish style and leave wood on the top of the step.

I hate tiled stairs where I’ve come across them - always worried about slipping.

I ripped out the vile carpet on my stairs when I moved in 2yrs ago. I'm left with wooden treads and I've slipped down the buggery things more times than I can count. Even the dog has had a mishap or seven. I'd re-carpet in a heart beat but can't afford to. But all that aside - tiles???? What are you thinking???? No. Just no!!

I have a friend who put wood effect tile on their concrete staircase, and less than two years later a lot of them are cracked, plus it’s slippery. I wouldn’t do it personally.

Why don't you clean them that often. How do you mean they get sticky. It's not hard to vacuum them once a week surely. Tiled stairs look crap in my opinion!

Thank you so much for your replies... Saw some really cool shiny photos on internet and imagined how easy it is to just give a casual swipe over it with a wet cloth and have it clean.. rather than scrubbing each wooden step. I totally didnt think about the 'slipping' part. Thank you for sharing your experience. If not tiles, any other option that's easy to clean?

The first thing I thought was that they would be slippery. I have done at least two spectacular crashes on my tiled kitchen floor when there was just a little bit of water on the floor. I wouldn't want tiled stairs.

@Fullofpudding, its the corners and the area around the spindles that are quite hard to clean. The current carpet on the staircase, doesnt cover the entire steps, but just the middle part. So lots of dust gets accumulated under the carpet edges too. So its a nightmare for me.

I’d say the answer is full edge to edge carpet then. You can get styles that are darker at the edge

The stairs in your picture look painted.

I'd have thought that there's too much flex in a wooden staircase for tiles so they'd crack and lift.

There's nothing easier to clean than carpet on the entire step, much less dusty than the strip of carpet in the middle.

I don't like painted or tiled stairs. Too slippery. It's the only bit of our house which is carpeted actually.

If you have e a staircase similar to that I'd put carpet down the middle and keep the edges painted or varnished wood. You then can wipe round the spindles and hoover the middle bit.

Seconding the post about them lifting and cracking; tiles need a solid inflexible base which wooden stairs cannot provide and yes, the slipping. Does your vacuum nozzle not pick up the bits; yes it's a pain but needs must or is cleaning a worry for you generally?

Yeah, I agree with PP- sounds like a death trap.

We have painted stairs and a carpet stair runner down the middle.

I'd always have carpet on stairs. In an ideal world, I would have stairs like the ones in the photo you've posted. But real life is not Pinterest Perfect and if you have kids, prepare for a lot of goose eggs if you choose 'slippery' stairs. My friend got a black eye and a goose egg on her forehead after a particularly bad slip down the stairs.
Tiles on stairs would look really weird though, I have to say. As unkind as this sounds, it would look pretty awful, OP.

Carpet on stairs is easy to clean with a silicone bristle brush OP, and definitely safer than tiles. If you go for twist pile, it won’t pick up so much dust either, and a steam clean every quarter will keep grease at bay...

What about a leather stair tread, or runner. They aren’t that slippy (although I have only seen one in real life) and shouldn’t collect dust.

A bit niche, but would fit your brief

www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pinterest.com%2Fmjenniferhopper%2Fstairs%2F&psig=AOvVaw3SxQPzILEZOMUcsLxiF8fX&ust=1617582326802000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCMjbu_Kp4-8CFQAAAAAdAAAAABAI

I hate carpet but was worried about slipping on wooden stairs so I had seagrass matting put on my stairs. It looks fab.

Thank you so much for all these responses. The slipping experiences sound terrible. That picture I shared was from internet, I didn't know it was just painted - how stupid of me. I was only thinking about the cleaning part, but had no clue about all the cons explained in the responses. Either go for twist pile carpet (thanks again, never knew there is such carpet and that's what its called, looked up the pictures, they have neat finish) or just paint the wooden stairs.

Thanks again for such valuable information...

@FangsForTheMemory

I hate carpet but was worried about slipping on wooden stairs so I had seagrass matting put on my stairs. It looks fab.

My current carpet is seagrass matting, the problem is it doesn't fully cover the steps. I find the dust accumulating under the carpet at the edges are super annoying. But if its fully covered I can imagine it looks much neater.

yes, it's edge to edge