1970s "floating" style staircase with green carpet - what do I need to know and do?

[HangerLaneGyratorySystem]

Buying a house with a staircase like the picture below but complete with thick dark green carpet on each tread, and the wood is a darker brown stain/varnish. It's all a bit creaky too, but what should I do or what could I do? What do I need to know? I want to remove the carpet but what then? Paint it? (that's a LOT of sanding!) Does it need checking out for safety? Ideas/advice welcomed!

If you get rid of the carpet the amount of dust and dirt that will fall through it is unreal. I would recover with sisal or something else more “on trend”.

Thing is though @RandomMess I reckon I'm going to have to paint the whole thing first. I can't leave it that colour (similar to picture but darker). So strip it, paint it all and have carpet "strips" but then do carpet fitters know how to do this sort of thing? I can't imagine they come across these staircases often? Feeling expensive?

I think the first thing you should do is to get them checked for safety, especially if you have young children. Safety standards have been tightened considerably in the past fifty years, thankfully, and that type stairs look very unsafe to me, particularly if, as you say, they are also a bit rickety. I think l would want to block them in and make sure the rails are up to standard.

New staircases are inexpensive and easy to fit, although it is a 2 person job. That's what I would do.

What do you want it to look like in the end?

I quite like an open staircase. Lots of light. sounds as though you’re keeping it open but just want to change colour and want it to be DIY as much as possible?

I second replacing the staircase with a bog standard one as the easier option. Not as expensive or as tricky as you might think.

Growing up in the 70’s/80’s a lot of houses seemed to have these treads - usually carpet covered or matched to parquet flooring. What I would say is that without the carpet, falling or tripping up whilst climbing the stairs is a hurty shin affair!

If yours is darker wood then it may be iroko which you can’t lighten. If you dislike it that much then just replace the whole thing.

As someone who lives in a house (not mine) with one of these, replace it at the earliest opportunity.

There quite standard
not great for kids but don’t rip the carpet up and varnish the treads it will be incredibly slippy
used to live in a terraced house and painted stairs to top floor fell down them a few times when just wearing socks

paint it and have each tread carpeted with a runner in the middle of each tread leaving bare wood at the side of each tread

I’d put a new staircase instead www.ebay.co.uk/itm/396373251134

I’d get a quote for replacing it before trying to change anything.

Get a carpenter out to look at it. They can advise if it's safe or to replace. If it's safe you could remove the carpet, add backs to each step (from underneath) then have full carpet fitted.

We inherited very similar-complete with green carpet! I sanded everything back and treated it with Matt varnish. It looks good but absolutely isn’t safe. With a grandchild on the way we’re looking at options, and the easiest might be to replace it

You could add some risers to the back of the stairs quite easily and replace the spindles and handrails quite easily

If it doesn’t seem very solid, replace it with a conventional staircase. It would be my first priority unless the electrics need doing.

We put up with an uncarpeted staircase to our loft conversion for a few years until we could afford a new stair carpet. It was bare, but safe.

The house I grew up in had a similar staircase, no carpet, and it wasn’t by a wall. It came into the middle of the room, so no railings. Very stylish… but I took the skin off my back falling down it once.

Funnily enough it has never occurred to me that it was unsafe! The word at the time was I should have been more careful 🤣

We also had one of these growing up. Family of 6. We used to thunder up.and down it without a second thought.

70s are having a rethink now I noticed when having a look at some European design magazines a few months ago. I’d keep and put bookcases under which would support the structure more.

Treat the esthetic issue separately from the safety (creakiness, open staircase...) issue.

• esthetically, what you spend, sand, the colour of the carpet, the fashion... Your tastes. Yes, sanding takes time. DIY is leisure for some people, decide what it is for you.
• Safety is not an option. Two factors
• You said those stairs are creaky. The photo look sturdy but (do I understand correctly) it "looks like" the photo? If they creak, is it some steps, every step, the whole staircase? If steps, even every step, reinforce them (more below); if whole case, find out where it's moving from (top, bottom, fixing to wall) and make sure it's solidly in place.
• There's a reason open treads have disappeared from uk houses even though they are light. A baby can climb between steps and tumble down. If you leave the staircase open, watch the toddlers. Or, you can make it safe while keeping it semi-open and reinforce steps: Underneath each step, insert a vertical reinforcement (stops the creakiness too) where in ordinary stairs the risers would be. The open part should not be wider than a baby's head (18cm max). Alternatively, if you desperately want the light, make solid risers in a transparent material like a thick sheet of perspex.

Looks gorgeous!

Keep the staircase , it's an original feature.

I’d have to replace it, I couldn’t live with it!

The building regs specify the gap between risers can’t be more than 100mm. This is based on the idea that a child’s head should not be able to pass through the gap.

So if the ugliness doesn’t put you off, you might want to consider this for safety.

Same here, my parents are still there and so is the staircase!

Well they’ve carpeted those steps for a reason. It wasn’t because they had cold feet.

I had an attic bedroom with varnished stairs. Lost count of the number of times I skidded down then (particularly if I was wearing socks). There was a wall at the end too which added a sense of danger to proceedings.
i’d put in a new staircase.

Assuming it’s checked and safe or made safe I wouldn’t carpet. I’d sand and varnish the steps. The simplicity of these staircases when they’re restored looks great and they’re making a comeback. Here’s a couple of pics (when they’re approved) for inspo!