Stair Runners

Parents Forum Parent Cafe
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I need advice on installing stair runners in my town home. We have been here over 3 years; we have 3 stories, so two flights of hardwoods stairs. A few months ago we had a new mattress delivered for the top floor, and the delivery guys scratched every single stair on both levels as they dragged the old mattress down. After many months of negotiations, they have agreed to pay for the refinishing of the stairs, as well as the damage to the floors, which are engineer wood floors. We actually have extra boxes of the flooring, so have from the same color lot.

The builder already had to refinish these stair shortly after we moved in as there were some defects. The color has never matched our flooring or banister well, and I think the quality of the wood on the stairs is not the best, or they never sanding them down well enough. Without removing the baluster and handrails, I don’t think I will be happy with the final look.

We are thinking about adding runners instead of refinishing the stairs, but I can not decide what would be best for the landings. There are two landings for the 2nd to 3rd floor, and one from the 1st to 2nd floor. All 3 are only one or two step from the floor; they are just there to make the turns. All 3 are square; the largest is about 4 foot square. If we don’t add the carpet to the landings, 2 of then have a good sized scratch, so it would be noticeable, unless there is a way to buff that area out. If I carpet the landing, the pictures I have seen online look odd due to the way the carpet needs to be cut where the stairs turn.

I do know I want the stairs finished with the French Cap or Hollywood method vs. Waterfall as I like the more finished look. You can see the second set of stairs from our living area, so I don’t want to see the sides of the Waterfall.

Any opinions on the landings? Anything to know about runners? I have always had carpets stairs until moving here and have enjoy the look of the wood floors, but starting to like the idea of runners. Also really dumb question, but how do you clean the wood edges; by hand? Currently we just mop the stairs with Bona, but with runners, the area to the sides will be small; not sure I am excited about getting on my hands and knee to clean all the stairs!

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Don’t know if you’re talking about a self install or not. A DIY couple I follow has done this process in a couple of their homes:

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Are your stairs running between walls or do you have balusters on one or both sides? I would just do this:
image

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Depends on which landing. Two are like your picture above. The other, the one visible from the living area has railing to one side.; this one only turns to one stair.

Looking a bit more online and I think if I find the right carpet, it will look ok; I am just being weird!

@abasket We are not a DIY couple on something like this! We should be receiving enough money from the furniture company that we will have the experts handle the install!

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We have a slit staircase. There are steps up from front and back of house that meet halfway up with a landing and then a single staircase the rest of the way up to the second floor. Runner on the stairs. Landing is just hardwood. Only other workable option would have been to carpet the landing and have the runners on the steps. We were going with less carpet (all hardwood on first floor except back entrance/bathroom/laundry room which is tiled).

Cleaning steps isn’t an issue. You can either use a vacuum or duster. Sides of the treads aren’t where people are stepping.

BTW, when I first saw this thread I thought it was about people who climb stairs of high rise buildings. Have done a few of those for charity events. :slight_smile:

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We have an L shaped set of stairs…maybe six up to the landing and then 6 more to the second floor. We have hardwood like our main level floors on the landing. Runners are on the stairs only. It works well. We did it basically for noise control when folks were going up and down the stairs.

We are getting new carpet at some point upstairs and will do the same.