Carpeting Stairs - Tips 'n' Tricks?

DanTheMan · 08-14-2008, 10:35 AM

I'm a pretty decent handyman and have done tiling, vinyl, and a good deal of laminate... but never carpet and never stair work. I'm finishing the basement in my new home and plan on carpeting the stairs.

Basically, I'd like to know if this is a DIY job for a decent handyman and maybe even a quick how-to. It's a full flight of stairs (12-13?) with walls on either side, but the last 3 steps have their edges exposed on one side so I'll have to wrap the carpeting around the tread edges on those.

I have an air compressor and a stapler that uses 1/4" crown staples. Dunno if that'll do the trick or if I should rent a carpet stapler. I assume I'll have to rent a carpet stretcher as well.

Any help or pointers to info so I know what I'm doing would be appreciated.

Dan

DanTheMan · 08-20-2008, 09:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by contour

Hi Dan,

An easy solution might be to just put a carpet runner on your stairs. Here is a step by step article: How to Install Carpet Runner on Basement Stairs
It looks pretty simple to me but you might have more special needs. Hope it helps anyways. Cheers!

Thanks. It's definitely something to consider. The stairs are new and not damaged or anything, but they're just the crappy grade spruce treads that are meant to be covered (or replaced with hardwood). I could just fill the nail holes and paint. I'm not sure if it'll be any cheaper than just carpeting the whole width by the time I'm done buying the paint and those rods and hardware they used. I haven't measured or priced what it'll cost me for carpet yet.