How to Carpet your Stair Treads

 

Carpet Stair Treads You Will Love

All the cool kids are doing it! This is a carpet stair treads-only Chat!

So you want to carpet your stair treads, but don't want those hideous things you just drape on top and over each individual stair like a Hairpiece or old toupee! Lol,

You're Looking for the real deal, you're in the right place and I'm the Guy to Tell you all where to get them and how to install those carpet treads. If you're ready, let's go!

See the Installations Videos at the Bottom of the page

 

I've been a Carpet Installer for Many years and When someone asked me if we could do an Anderson Tuftex Only Natural Herringbone stair treads-only installation I was like I don't Fricken Think so!

 

I was like how the hell can I do this Id Never done it before and to carpet stair treads just sounded ludicrous to me (Shhh I had No Vison) Yet :)

 

The Lady (Lynn) had kept asking us if we could Carpet her stair treads and I kept putting it off But she was very persistent.

We didn't want to let her down, so I agreed to do this carpeting of her stair treads with the understanding that as a Professional I would do my best but with no guarantees.

Anderson Tuftex to Carpet Stair Treads?

there were many things that could go wrong Especially with a carpet such as Anderson Tuftex Only Natural Cafe Noir Herringbone Rug Carpet

 

Now Let Me give you a Visual On What was Her Staircase in pictures and in word

this staircase consisted of one bullnose step at the bottom that went up to a Landing, the landing and the Bullnose stair would be completely covered with carpet  

 

Then there were 12 open-ended stairs that would be carpeted on the Stair Treads, One of my many concerns with this stair tread carpet installation was how to secure the carpet it so it wouldn't fray,

You see this carpet that we were using is made and sewn in a looping pattern much like Berber carpets and I had to cut every stair individually.

Meaning every stair cut I would be cutting those Berber loops and it would open up and possibly fray!

I mean, that's Kinda why I didn't want to do it in the first place Lol

 

Ok, so I started the Installation off Got the Bullnose Carpet, Finished, and the Landing Carpet is done, now it's time to Carpet these Stair Tread

So I Cut the Stair Treads into individual pieces the measurements were 42 inches long by 13 inches deep, now this cut gave me a little extra carpet to work with but not too much to be in the way.

I start at the first Bottom Stair Tread and Work my way up the staircase. Remember, I've never done this before and I was like a Bon Jovi song I'm Living on a prayer LMAO.

 

So the way that I've figured out how to Carpet these stair treads is I start with the Pre-cut piece and bend or pre-form it if you will so that when I go to staple the carpet up underneath it doesn't rip off and spring back,.

Remember, it is a loop Carpet and we don't need excessive carpet pulls or fraying.

With my Electric Staple Gun on an extreme angle, I put tons of pressure on the carpet with the nose of the gun and squeeze the trigger, and the first staple Blasts the Carpet into place

I work My Way along the underneath side of the stair treads where the riser and stair treads meet and blast staples into the carpet every 1/4 inch...

 

Yes, I said every 1/4 inch and that's a hell of a lot of staples to put in carpet/ but guess what we need a ton of staples to secure this stair tread so it doesn't come drooping out the bottom and looks super tight Right? Right

 

Ok, Now this carpet Looks Great and this Stair Treads Installation Method is working I have Figured Out how to secure the Underside of the carpet where the stair tread and the riser meet, and it looks great.

Now for the Topside..... Yikes

 

Ok, let's do this... I grab My Carpet Kicker and Put Some Pressure on it with my knee and get this carpet tread into place and I lock it into place with a few staples and my stair tool

 

The how-to Video Below will show you how we achieve a compression fit between the stair riser the carpet and the smooth edge yes, I said smooth edge (tackstrip)

Now I have explained that yet, but that's part of the prep work that you can see in the video lol...

Now where was I Oh Yeah 

So I Jam The Carpet in-between the top riser the smooth edge (Tackstrip) and the carpet, I use a Hammer to really make sure the carpet is jammed as far into the groove as humanly possible,

 

Then when I was satisfied that it was ready to cut I grab my carpet knife insert a brand-new blade and attempt to cut this first stair tread to perfection with no mistakes.

 

 

So Cutting at a perfect 45 Degrees in the most perfect spot at the most perfect location with a fantastic super sharp blade I cut the excess carpet out of the groove pull off the excess carpet blow out the fluff.

 I use my carpet tucker and stuff all the fibers back into the groove to leave a seamless, perfect tight joint between the riser and the stair tread amazing!

Look at this I did it the Perfect carpeted stair treads Wow!!!!!

 

Now I only have 11 More to do lol

I finished the Job and the customer (Lynn) was beside herself and so happy and to tell you the truth, I was really happy as well, I had accomplished something I did not think possible I carpeted stair treads and now we do it all the time and with ease.

Check Out the Video here from the Conversation Above

Now Everyone Wants Carpet on their Stair Treads

So I Upload the Video Above to My YouTube Channel (Keith Shannon) and it Hits Hard and fast for a new concept video 77 thousand views and counting and its not that great of a video lol

Filming the Carpet Treads

When I was filming the carpet treads that day I ran out of memory and couldn't finish the rest and that's why the video seems incomplete.

Fast Forward, People in My City are buzzing and calling us to do Carpet Stair Treads to their Staircase.

So We go down to meet the person and show her some carpet samples and she decides to Anderson Tuftex Scout, a Fabulous carpet for stair treads by the way.

The Anderson Tuftex Scout Monument was the color

Ok, so this is only My Second Job carpeting stair treads But I feel Like I'm up for the challenge

This is a Different carpet to install mind you, But I'm a pro Let's go!

This Anderson Tuftex Scout had a Diamond Shaped Pattern that needs to match,

Pattern Match on Carpet Stair Treads is Very Important!

Pattern Match if you will, It needs to look good to the eye, what's good for the eye is good for the soul!

So the first thing we do is order a 5ft x 12ft Piece of Scout from Anderson Tuftex and cut it up into rows at the shop.

We know that each Carpet Stair Tread is 35 inches wide x 13 inches from riser to riser. This means we will cut carpet strips 35 1/4 wide x 6ft long and cut along the pattern on each piece to match up.

Cut The Carpet Stair Treads into Single Pieces

We will also now cut the carpet treads to size at 35 1/4 x 13 1/2

We need 12 stair treads to Carpet our Staircase, so let's cut that up now!

So we get to the Job and the Staircase looks like this the stair treads are bare, but she has added some special sauce if you will, to the Stair Treads, She had her contractor add LVP to the Stair riser's

They Added Luxury Vynal Plank to the Stair Risers! "Wow"

When I got to the House Instead of the typical Painted White Risers the People had their Contractor Install Luxury Vinal Plank across the risers and it Looked amazing, absolutely totally cool!

The Carpet Stair Treads was Going Great Until I hit a Snag!

This Carpet Stair Treads Job was a Basement Staircase, and sometimes there are snags with Carpeting basement staircases!

The Problem with Carpeting Stair Treads Only on Basement Stairs

A few problems that can arise with Carpet stair Treads in a Basement are that sometime folks build raised subfloors and my house is no exception.

In Colder Climates Concrete is cold and we Northerners Like Our Man Caves and our basement Hideaways and we like it warm!

In Colder Climates People build Subfloors sometimes 4 inches high this can be for wet basement issues or to elevate the floor off of cold concrete, nevertheless the stairs have not moved but the bottom stair has???

Why is the Bottom Stair Tread so much Lower than the Rest of the Stairs?

So here is the Issue the Bottom stair is only a half stair and how are we going to get our staple gun under the nose???? See what I mean!

Solution/ lets glue it and that's what I did, wasn't easy, but I glued the underside of the carpet with a hot glue gun jammed a few books underneath to keep it in place and let it dry while I installed the other 11 stair treads :)

All the Others Stair Treads Went off without a hitch, Now I've done this before lol, I used the same method that I used on the herringbone stair treads install.

1. Install Tackstrip 1/4 inch away from the riser

2. Tack Pad into place and make sure to wrap the nose of the stair

3. Pre-form & make Pliable your Piece of Carpet

4. Staple the carpet from left to right every 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch

5. Fold up & over, Tighten with a Kicker

6. A hammer with a carpet tucker into the groove between riser & Tackstrip

7. Using a Sharp Blade Cut the Carpet on a 45 Degree Angle

8. Blowout Carpet Fluff and Repeat Step 6

9. Secure Carpet Stair Treads with Staples In the Groove if Needed

Back to The Last Stair Tread Short Step

Ok Check to See if the Glue Took and Thank Goodness, it did, Now we just repeat what was in the Installation How-to List Above and we are done.

Here are the Carpet Stair Treads Finished Look!

 

 

Here Is the Carpet Stair Treads Video Enjoy!

I have perfected a few methods of how to install carpet stair treads and have taught these methods to hundreds of people through my YouTube channel

We now have Started to Sell these stair carpet treads on our Website DirectCarpet.com in many styles

Here is the Link to Our DIY Stair Tread Carpet Kit if you're interested

Here is a List of all the Tools You Will Need to Carpet your Stair treads

• Electric Staple gun

• Carpet Tucker or Stair Tool

• Electric Gun Staples

• Carpet Knife

• Hammer

• Sharp Scissors

• Glue Gun

• Knee Kicker

 

 

 

Conclusion

Carpeting Stair treads look cool! It's really not that hard and you can do it yourself, you can buy a carpet kit that comes with a carpet under-pad and all the fixings along with some how-to videos or you can buy some stair treads tops off of amazon the sky is the limit.