How to Install a Stair Runner 2027

A staircase is the center-piece of your home. And it is not just about safety — it is for expecting mothers, for the elderly, for people with pets, and honestly, a lot of people just want one because it is the first thing you see when you walk in the door. There are a lot of reasons to put one down, and then there is the general safety on top of all of it.

I am Keith Shannon, and I have been a master installer for over 25 years. We are all installers here — everything on this page comes from an installation point of view, not a sales one. We have installed every carpet we sell and recommend, so we know how they work and how they feel. One thing up front: this is a DIY guide on how to install a stair runner. It is how someone at home can install their own stair runner with a minimal amount of tools — not a course on going pro. Follow along and your stairs will look great.

How to Install a Stair Runner in 7 Steps

1. Measure your stairs. Allow 19 inches per stair, plus the top riser. Or use our stair runner calculator.
2. Prep the stairs. Clean your wooden stairs and pull any old staples.
3. Center the padding first. Cut it about 1 inch shorter on each side than the runner.
4. Start at the bottom. Center the runner with your spacer and staple along the edge with 9/16-inch crown staples.
5. Kick, crease, staple. Lean pressure into it, crease it into the crotch of the step with the stair tool, staple along the groove.
6. Keep it tight and straight all the way up. Run your spacer up one side the whole way.
7. Finish the top. Trim the excess and staple along the bottom edge of the lip of the top stair.

Watch how we install a stair runner with a left turn landing (Always Natural Fossil). The same technique works for a right turn. Watch on YouTube

The #1 Mistake DIYers Make

Not starting the stair runner straight at the bottom would be the number one mistake. The second big mistake that I see, they don't crease their angles between the tread and the riser properly. To me, that crease is the most important.

What Tools Do I Need?

A knee kicker, a tucker (stair tool), a good utility knife with sharp blades, 9/16-inch crown staples, an electric staple gun (a Dual-Fast or a Roberts), a glue gun, a generic hammer, and a tape measure. You can make your own spacer out of a scrap of underpad. That is pretty much it. You can rent most of these at Home Depot or any rental place like United Rentals.

How Much Carpet Do I Need? (The Measuring Rule)

Our rule of thumb: allow 19 inches per stair, and we almost always include the top riser, so 12 stairs is really 12.5 stairs. The formula is 19 times (number of stairs, plus 0.5 for the top) divided by 12 equals the feet of runner you need.

Stairs	Runner length
12.5 stairs	20 feet
13.5 stairs	22 feet
14.5 stairs	24 feet
15.5 stairs	26 feet
17.5 stairs	28 feet
18.5 stairs	30 feet (custom)

Or skip the math with our Stair Runner Calculator: punch in your stairs and width and it gives you the length.

Want the full method, with landings, pie stairs and widths? See How to Measure for a Stair Runner 2027.

How to Install a Stair Runner: Step by Step

Step 1 — Prep the stairs. Clean your wooden stairs and pull any old staples if there was a runner there before. Make sure the surface is ready for your makeover.

Step 2 — Center and lay the padding first. This matters: center your pad first, because if the pad is centered it is a lot easier to keep your carpet centered all the way up. Cut the underpad about 1 inch shorter on each side than the runner, so there is a place on both sides for the carpet to be stapled or glued. Tack it down with a hammer tacker.

Step 3 — Tack strip or staples? It depends on the backing. With Feltback carpet, tack strip tends to rip the backing, so use staples. With jute-back or action-back, tack strip is perfect, and you can use a combination of both. Know your backing first.

Step 4 — Start at the bottom. Center the runner at the bottom step using your spacer on one side, fold the edge down to the bottom of the first stair, and staple along the edge with your 9/16-inch crown staples.

Step 5 — Kick, crease, staple. Bring the runner up. Use the knee kicker to keep it snug, and note, we do not really kick it, we lean pressure into it to hold tension. Then work the stair tool into the crotch of the step, back and forth, to crease it tight so the carpet conforms to the 90-degree angle. Staple along that groove. (Installing top-down instead? Then you do not need a kicker, I am just more experienced bottom-up.)

Top down or bottom up? There's many schools of thought on that. A lot of people in North America install from the bottom up. A lot of people in Europe install from the top down. When you install from the top down, it's usually waterfall. When you install from the bottom up, it's usually cap and band, which follows the contour. You have a little bit more control of keeping a stair runner straight when you're controlling it with a knee kicker and you're going from the bottom. Sometimes when you're installing from the top down, it's hard to keep it straight, but that depends on the installer.

Step 6 — Keep it tight and straight all the way up. Run your spacer up one side the whole way. This is the most important thing: tight and straight. You can be off by as much as a quarter inch and the eye will not catch it, but if it is crooked or loose, you really have not done your job. Keep checking as you go; stairs are often not straight even when they look it.

Step 7 — Finish the top. Trim the excess pad and carpet and staple along the bottom edge of the lip of the top stair. Finishing the top clean is what separates a good job from a great one (full method in the FAQ below). Remember, it is a piece of material, so work it and crease it to conform to those 90-degree angles. A little elbow grease, a few hours, and you are done.

What's new: We use a spacer now instead of a tape measure, so it's just easier than holding onto a tape. For DIYers, you can just put that spacer pad up against the stringer on one side and measure all the way up.

Which Stair Runners Are Easiest to Install?

I would say the easiest is going to be something like English Beige Mallard Manor, or something like Cosmo. And then the hardest is going to be the Lifeguard Softback, something like Laken Checkers. Tranquil Spirit has the Lifeguard Softback on it too, and it is a real pain to install.

Easiest: Mallard Manor English Beige

Easiest: Cosmo Modern Beige

Hardest: Laken Checkers

Pro Techniques for a Master-Pro Finish

• The spacer template. Stairs are liars: they look straight but they are not. Slide a scrap-underpad spacer against the stringer and push the carpet to it, so you are 100 percent consistent bottom to top. No math, no zigzag.
• The wiggle. On Berber, wiggle the gun tip into the pile so the loops move aside; the staple hits the backing and the loops snap back over it. Invisible install.
• Pre-bending. Berber is engineered to resist. Break the backing by hand over the nose before you pick up the gun so it stops fighting you and popping staples.
• Counter-sinking. Hammer and stair-tool every staple down into the wood for a deep, professional shadow line. If I can see your staples, you are not done, I want to see the groove.
• Seal every cut. A bead of hot glue on every cut edge; if you do not, that Berber frays in six months.

Keith's secret: Use the spacer to keep your stair runner straight. Keep your stair runner nice and tight. And score the lines between the tread and the riser, that makes a professional job. Then countersink your staples if you see anything. And the number one secret that I use: split your pile and hide your staple behind the pile, not on top of it.

Which Pattern Is Best for Stairs? (A Secret Most Stores Will Not Tell You)

Here is something almost nobody talks about, because most stores have never actually installed a runner, they are just sales people. Everyone obsesses over the design. But the real trick is how the pattern plays with your stairs.

No staircase is ever perfectly straight, and no installer is perfect. So if you choose a carpet with horizontal lines, lines running across the step, those lines will show every little bit of crookedness, and you will never un-see it. But go with a linear, parallel pattern, herringbone or anything with the lines running down the staircase, and the pattern runs parallel with the stairs, so it actually elongates them and never looks off. The imperfections just disappear.

That is exactly why most of our carpets do not have horizontal lines. We pick patterns that make your stairs look longer and hide the imperfections, because we install these for a living. It is a big reason herringbone is our most popular pattern.

What Size Stair Runner Should I Get?

It comes down to personal preference and the character of your staircase. Say you have a 36-inch-wide staircase: a 30-inch runner leaves 3 inches of wood on each side, and a 28-inch runner leaves 4 inches on each side. It just depends how much wood you want to see. Some people love showing off their wood; others want to cover almost all of it, especially on older, painted stairs.

How Do You Install a Stair Runner on a Landing?

Landings are where most DIYers quit, do not. Before you cut, stop stapling on the 45-degree angle and staple straight down so your blade does not hit a staple. Squeeze the bubble out with your thumb and stair tool so there is zero air behind the carpet, then seal the seam with a bead of hot glue smoothed with a wet finger, and the seam disappears. We make landings in every shape, and here are the videos.

More Install Videos from Keith

Every one of these is from our own YouTube channel — real stairs, real installs.

Beginner Guide: Stair Runner Installation

How to Install a Stair Runner on Stairs (the Right Way)

Modern Farmhouse Stair Runner Install — Full Tutorial

Stair Runner Pro Tips

Stapling a Stair Runner to Quarter Round / Under Molding

Stair Runner Installation FAQ

Can I install a stair runner myself?

Absolutely. We have the DIY videos that show people how to DIY their stair runner in a few hours. If you're mechanically inclined, this should be very easy. You can take it slow, follow the steps, start straight, finish straight.

What holds a stair runner in place?

You can use tack strip, which is a little bit more advanced. We use staples with most of ours to teach DIYers. You can also use stair rods.

Do you need padding under a stair runner?

You don't need underpad under a stair runner. It just feels better underfoot. It holds the carpet steady, it won't slip back and forth on the hardwood, and you're going to get a longer life out of the carpet, so it's good for wear and tear.

How much does it cost to install a stair runner?

You can get a stair runner from us, shipped, for $509 USD for 12.5 stairs, or about $599 all included with the pad, a little bit more as it goes up. It'll be a little bit more if you have a left turn or a right turn landing. A pro install could cost you up to $2,000.

How do you finish a stair runner at the top?

This is the one everybody gets stuck on, and it is actually fairly easy once you know the trick. Install your runner all the way up to the last riser and cut off the extra, leaving about an inch or two to work with. Crease it really well. Then take a sharp blade and cut from the left, on the outside of the binding, careful not to cut into your wood or backing riser, and cut to the metal. Do the same from the right: cut to the metal. Pull the piece off, blow out all the fluff, and tuck it down with your stair tool. Now measure your riser, and measure each side separately, because stairs are rarely perfectly straight (it might be 5 inches on one side and 5 and a quarter on the other). Cut your finished-edge piece to that measurement and fit it into the riser. Done right, it looks invisible and seamless, and no one will ever know it is not one continuous piece.

Nylon vs polyester vs polypropylene, which is better for stairs?

They each have a trade-off. Nylon is more durable and lasts longer (and often comes with a Scotchgard treatment). Polyester and polypropylene are usually easier to clean. So it comes down to what matters most to you: nylon lasts longer, poly is easier to clean.

What size staples should you use for a stair runner?

9/16-inch crown staples.

Can you install a stair runner over existing carpet?

You absolutely can, but not with the normal methods. You need to use decorative bars with a screw on each end, so you have a screw long enough to go through the original carpet and into the stair. Regular staples will not hold through an existing carpet. More here: can you put a stair runner over carpet.

Waterfall or cap-and-band, which is better?

There is no better, it is a decorative choice. Waterfall is the original; it goes back to the old days (think Scarlett O'Hara!) because it was invented before electric staple guns, and they used decorative bars to hold it. The one advantage of cap-and-band is that wrapping under the nose and capping it shortens the distance between tack points, so the runner stays tighter over time. The only downside is more staples under the nose, so it is more work to rip out later.

How do you keep a stair runner from sliding or moving?

A stair runner that is stapled on properly is not going to move, period. Where people get in trouble is grabbing some random material with stretch in it; step on that and it shifts, and that is genuinely dangerous on stairs. Underpad under a proper runner helps with any shifting, but a real runner installed correctly does not move.

Do I need tack strips, or can I install without nails?

Tack strip is fantastic, a piece with 5 nails only makes 5 little holes, versus the staple-gun method which puts in a lot of smaller holes. But here is the catch: a lot of our carpets are Feltback (a Shaw product), and with Feltback, tack strip does not work; it can severely rip the backing when you crease it. So for Feltback we recommend the staple-gun method. Tack strip was really invented for action-back or jute-back carpet, and it works great for those.

How long does it take to install a stair runner?

As a pro, I can do a bare straight flight in about an hour, a straight-with-a-turn landing in about an hour and a half, and a U-shape in about two hours. For a brand-new DIYer doing a straight 12.5-stair runner, there is no reason you cannot finish inside two hours, it is an afternoon. And so what if it takes you three or four hours? Some folks like to go slow. The right answer is: put it on straight, and put it on right.

Do stair runners help dogs on slippery stairs?

Absolutely. A lot of people end up carrying their dog up to bed and back down every day, and plenty of dogs are terrified of the stairs. Dogs do not like hardwood, flat or on stairs, because their nails cannot get any grip. Put a runner down, and once the dog learns to walk on it, it is comfortable.

Will the staples damage my hardwood stairs?

Honestly, 100 percent, they will. So will tack strip. So will glue. Everything damages the hardwood to some degree. But here is what most people do not realize: it is not just the staple holes, it is sun fading. Wherever the runner covers the wood, that strip stays the original color, while the exposed sides fade over time. So years later, the wood is dark and aged on the sides and bright and new underneath. It is worth knowing before you decide.

Pro Installer Secret: When we measure a home that already had, say, a 27-inch runner, we always bump the new one up to 28 or 29 inches. Why? Because of that fading. If we went back in under the old width, you would see the old fade line and staple marks on the exposed wood. Adding an inch on each side guarantees you cover up the old marks. That is how the pros make it look brand new.

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