How to fit carpet onto stairs


There are lots of reasons for wanting to carpet your staircase; from simply matching it to the room's overall look to reducing noise and making the staircase softer and safer. The trickiest part of this project is making sure that the carpet fits neatly and tightly over each tread.

Level of difficulty:

Level 2 – Intermediate

What you need:

Tape measure
Carpet
Underlay
Knee-kicker carpet stretcher
Carpet adhesive spray
Trimming knife
Nail gripper strips
Hammer
Nails

To fit an underlay:

  1. Measure the dimension of your stair treads.
  2. Cut the pieces of underlay carpet.
  3. Place the piece of carpet on the riser and attach it with tacks or gripper strip. You can also use a tack or gripper strip to the front edge under the nosing.
  4. When you're finished laying the piece of carpet on the tread, fit the nosing.

To lay a carpet:

  1. With a tape measure, measure the area that needs carpeting, taking into account all stairs and landing areas.
  2. Acquire a piece of used cloth or dust sheet that’s slightly bigger than the dimension you acquired in step 1. Start laying it from the top of the stairs and work downwards. With a marker, mark the changes (difference in width and length of stairs and tread) on the cloth.
  3. Place this newly marked piece of cloth on the carpet and cut according to the marked lines.
  4. Nail gripper-strips on both sides of the tread.
  5. In general, you can carpet the stairs across the width of the stairs. If you want to reveal an area of the wooden part on the left and right-hand side of the tread staircase, you'll need to use a stair rod to keep the carpet in place. Nail the stair rod clips right at the edge of the carpet, on the wooden side of the tread. Fit the stair rods in the clips. Tighten the screws for a secure fit.
  6. Secure the carpet to the stairs at every 75 mm (3 in) interval across the treads.
  7. Use a bolster chisel to push the carpet into the angle between the risers and tread and push outwards.
  8. If you have protruding pieces of carpet, cut the ends with a trimming knife.

 

Notes:

  • If you have a standard-width staircase (4m (13'1"), or in some cases 5m (16'4"), you can order a standard-width carpet from your local DIY shop; make sure you order an extra 450 mm (1 ft 6 in) for any future repair that you may need to make.
  • To lay a landing carpet, fit nail gripper strips on the edge of the top riser, fold the edge of the carpet and tack the carpet.
  • As an alternative to nail-gripper strips, use a carpet adhesive spray to secure the carpet in place.

 

To lay a straight run

  1. Measure the flight of stairs you plan to carpet and acquire the necessary lengths of carpet from your local DIY shop.
  2. Start laying the carpet from the top of the stairs, face down on the first tread.
  3. As you unroll and cover the first tread of stairs, fix it with tacks or gripper-strip. Make sure that you push the carpet firmly into the step with a bolster as you lay it.
  4. Lay the carpet over the nosing and attach it at the bottom of the riser with a gripper strip.
  5. At the last tread, nail the end of the carpet against the riser.

 

Note:
Stair runners are mostly used for carpeting stairs and they are easier to install on stairs than laying a landing carpet.
 

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