One of the most important questions that rarely gets asked is: What is the best carpet for stairs? When you have a multi-level home, with steps up or down to any room or level of your home, that step is going to endure a vast amount of foot traffic and wear due to the weight of each person entering or exiting. It’s important to keep this in mind when choosing your flooring. The Carpet Guys can help you choose the best carpet for your stairs.
Choose Stair Carpet with a Flexible Backing
The first thing to keep in mind is that you want a medium-weight style carpet. A heavier weighted style, though soft underfoot on a flat surface, is not going to easily bend over the step nose. This may cause the carpet to sit wide over the step and cause slipping and accidents. A lighter-weight carpet would bend easier over the lip of the step than heavier. The sparse nature of the carpet pile will look even more open as the flooring is bent. This will cause a “bald” look on your stairs.
What Type of Flooring will the Stair Carpet Transition to?
The second thing you will want to think about is what type of flooring the stairs will transition to. If it transitions to a hallway with the same carpet, it will be smooth. But if the steps end on tile or some other hard surface, you want to make sure to choose a carpet style that can easily transition at the riser to the other flooring type.
Get Great Padding
Lastly, you want to make sure that you have a good pad installed on your stairs with your carpet. Installers will only install pad on the tread (flat surface that your foot lands on) to help protect the carpet from wear and tear. Remember, that every time you step down onto a landing, that flooring surface is taking the equivalent of almost double your weight. So, these surfaces must be able to endure a much larger amount of deterioration. It’s also important for your body to have that exceptional padding underneath. Your joints also feel the blows of each step and that padding will absorb much of that impact.
If you’re looking to have your stairs carpeted because your old flooring is worn or because you want to ease your joint pain, call The Carpet Guys at 855-4-MY-GUYS or go to www.carpetguys.com. We can help you choose the best carpet for stairs and any other room in your home. To learn more about flooring on stairs and the difference between a “Hollywood” stair finish and a “Waterfall” stair finish, check out our blog of What is a Waterfall Finish?
