Question for people with carpets on their stairs.

[Spidermama]

We're sanding and polishing the stairs. Sadly we'll need runners otherwise it'll be too slippy for the kids. So a couple of questions ...

1. Where do I get them from (preferable online).

2. What do I do about the little mezanine area where the stairs turn a corner?

TIA.

Message withdrawn

What do you mean by 'runners'? Do you mean a thin strip of carpet in middle of the stairs?

Or do you mean the rods to hold carpet down?

ooh I know somewehre nice

cant think of it off hand though

does lovely stripy naturals

roger oates

Yes mumfor1sttime - I mean thin carpet running down the middle, probably held on with rods. What happens to this sort of carpet when it has to turn a corner. I can't quite picture it.
Dh says leave the mezzanine (presuming Cod's is the correct spelling) bare, but I think that would look foolish.

Who's right?
(The answer is 'me' by the way).

Ooooh there nice. Thanks Enid.

Don't do it!
The bare bits get all dusty and the rods are very expensive.

I think they look lovely

you can see what they have done with the returns and hallways (mezzanine ) in some of the gallery pix on that site

GB I was hoping to get rods at a flea market. Stairs will always get dusty won't they?

We have a lot of stairs in our house and I've noticed other mums and dads whispering to their children 'Keep your shoes on. The stairs are very dangerous here'. These are the conditions that my poor children are having to live with every day.

OMG! I've just noticed in one of the photos on that website that they have a polished wooden floor with painted stairs coming out of it. I always thought this was a design no-no. Am I sanding my stair floors for nothing I wonder?
(I want to do the house up for selling btw so personal preferance isn't the priority).

When it turns a corner you can either do a bit of origami and fold the excess up the risers, or cut and join a new bit of carpet thus . If your stairs are anything other than a straight run I'd pay someone else (ie the supplier) to lay it and save you the stress.

NB you don't need rods to hold the carpet on - you use gripper strips underneath like you do round the edges of a room - the rods are just for decoration.

you can also see here where they've joined the carpet on two diagonals to keep the border running true

and how to do a half-landing here
useful site that!

Think it depends on the 'look and age' of house, when it comes to sanding or painting the stairs.

I live in a new build, and stairs are painted.

I would prefer sanded though!

If you're doing the house up to sell on, wouldn't the norkularly gifted Sarah Beeny suggest you do whatever's cheapest and looks OK? So wouldn't just a nice neutral but cheap-ish carpet all over them do? Dont' know the relevant prices, though, so may be talking out of my @rse

My dad is a carpet fitter,

runners seem to be more expensive than just carpetting the whole stair width iyswim. Also the side bits get very dustly and need constant hoovering. It is cheaper I think to carpet the whole width of the carpet as runners are specially made and so are more expensive. Any good carpet shop should be able to advise.

As for the corners it is worth getting a carpet fitter to do it as it is quite tricky. Also note that shops that offer free fitting do charge for stairs fitting as there is a lot more work invoilved than just laying a room.

Hope this helps.

we have all kinds of sanded/painted/carpeted/sisaled floors in our house, adds to teh charm

Ah thanks MrsB. That's exactly what it is. OK, OK it's not a mezzanine but a half landing. In fact my half landing does a 180 degree turn rather than a 90 degree turn so a little tricky.

It has to be born in mind that we'll have to do all this ourselves because DH didn't get the job.

A friend suggested to me that I don't have to buy carpet but could put a couple of top layers of non-slip varnish on top. This friend is a sailor and uses the varnish on his boat.

Has anyone heard of this alternative?