How to Measure for a Stair Runner
HOW TO MEASURE A STAIR RUNNER in LINEAR feet
DIY Project? Runners Are Usually Sold By the Foot and Can Be Installed by the Do-it-yourselfer.
Or Can Be Hired Out to a Local Contracting Team!
Today Let's Teach You How to Measure your Stairs For your Runner so you'll know how much Carpet you will need Regardless!
STAIR RUNNERS COME IN MANY DIFFERENT WIDTHS
Let's see how long of a Runner you're Going to Need first (standard staircase)
STAIR RUNNER CALCULATOR/HOW TO CALCULATE RUNNER'S LINEAR FEET
THINGS YOU WILL NEED BEFORE WE START MEASURING YOUR STAIRS
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TAPE MEASURE
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CALCULATOR
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PAD OF PAPER
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MEASURE BOTH THE TREAD AND STAIR RISER TOGETHER
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The Picture Above illustrates what the Tread of the Stair is Exactly and How to Identify it, and the Same Picture Also Shows The Stair Riser (straight stairs)
Measure Straight Stairs, A Normal Residential House Will Usually have 12 Stairs and 13 Risers,
(Some will Have 13 Stairs and 14 risers)
Don't Worry About those 13 risers just yet, Let's Concentrate on Our first Measurement
Take a Tape Measure and Measure the Distance from the Bottom Riser and Run it Over the Edge of your Stair Down the Front of the bottom Riser as seen in the Explainer Picture below!
You Should Come Up With a Measurement of Around 18.5 inches to 19.5 inches
(This is the Standard Size of Most Stairs) Some are Bigger than Others.
Success You Have Your First Stair Tread Measurement! Now Let's Move On
2. MEASURING THE TOP RISER
Whether you have 6 stairs, 12 stairs, or 15 stairs you will always have one extra Riser!
That Riser Usually leads to a Stair Landing or an Upper Hallway. This is Your Extra Riser that Will Need to be Carpeted As well, So we Need to Measure How to Measure the Riser.
Put your Tape Measure Under the Nose of the Last Step (Upper Hallway or Landing) to the Bottom of the Risers and that's Your Riser Measurement!
Easy Stuff, Right?
3. CALCULATE HOW MUCH CARPET YOU WILL NEED!
How to Calculate Runner Linear Feet!
Alright, You've Got your Stair Tread and Riser Measurement checked!
You've got your Top Riser Measurement Check!
NOW IT'S TIME TO CALCULATE YOUR MEASUREMENTS AND MARRY THE TWO TOGETHER!
1. Count How Many Stairs You Have!
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Take the First Stair Measurement that you took from tread to riser and Multiply that by the Number of Stairs you have.
For Example, if your Measurement was 19 inches per stair and 6 inches for the top Extra Riser this would be the Calculation
19 inches x 12 stairs plus 6 inches top riser / 19x12+6=234 inches now divide that by 12 to get How many Ft and if my Math is correct the Answer is 19.5 ft you will need For your Runner
AD ONE FOOT EXTRA ONTO THE LENGTH OF YOUR STAIR RUNNER JUST IN CASE,
Have a little to Play with, Trust Me on this, Always have a Little Extra Length
So by My Calculations, you Would Need 20.5 Ft of Carpet Runner!
HOW to Choose the Perfect Width Runner
Alright, so you've Graduated and Now Know How Much Length you'll need for your stair Runner Good Stuff!
But How Wide Should Your Stair Runner Be?
Hmm? That's A Good Question!
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IS YOUR STAIRCASE NEW OR OLD?
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DO YOU WANT TO SEE A LOT OF WOOD ON THE SIDES OF YOUR STAIR RUNNER OR A LITTLE?
HOW TO MEASURE FOR A STAIR RUNNER IF YOU'RE STAIRCASE IS OLD?
If your staircase is old and Has Seen Better Days you May Want to cover more of the Wood than Not.
That Being Said the Minimum Space Gap on Each Side of You're a Stair Runner Should be No Less than 2 Inches.
The reason for this is that no Staircase is Completely Straight and True,
So When you're installing your Stair runner you may have to course correct!
This means you may have to adjust your stair runner as you install it!
A little to the left or a little to the right, and if your gap is too little, you may really notice the distance between the carpet and the stringer is off!
Our Recommendation is 3 to 4 inches of wood showing on each side of your Stair Runner as the normal eye will not be able to see the adjustment from side to side.
This is just a guide, you are ultimately the Boss here!
HOW TO MEASURE FOR A STAIR RUNNER IF YOU'RE STAIRCASE IS NEW?
If your stairs are new and you want to show off that the New Wood Look with your new stair runner, But you are trying to Minimize slips and falls.
Maybe you just like the look of a modern stair runner The most common size of stair runner that we put in and sell at www.directcarpet.com is a 28-inch Stair Runner.
A 28-INCH STAIR RUNNER IS THE MOST COMMON SIZE OF STAIR RUNNER/CARPET RUNNER
THE NEXT MOST POPULAR SIZE DOWN IS A 26-INCH STAIR RUNNER
The Next Most Popular Size of Stair Runner is 30 inches
The Most Common Sizes of Stair Runners Are 28 inches Being the Most Popular and 26-inch
HOW WIDE SHOULD MY STAIR RUNNER BE THEN?
Personally After Installing Thousands of Runners Myself and Having a Pretty Good YouTube Channel Showcasing How to Install a Stair Runner,
My Professional Opinion is I Like 4 Inches at Least, and at Minimum 3 inches will suffice, but I like a 4-inch gap for my runners, to me, it just looks right.
This Showcases the Wood on New Staircases and Covers up the Old on Older Staircases!
MEASURING YOUR STAIRS
So For Example, if your Staircase From Stringer to Stringer (Example Picture Below) is 36 Inches Wide a 28-inch Stair Runner would Work Nicely,!
Let's do the Math (36 inches - 28 inches = 8 inches)
This means a 28-inch stair Runner Would Work Perfectly Allowing 4 inches on each side to show just enough wood.
If you wanted to show a little less wood a 30-inch wide Stair runner would Work as well, leaving 3 inches showing on each side!
Installing Stair Runners Click Here
Curved Staircase Coming Soon!
CONCLUSION
So We Learned how to Measure our Stairs for Our Stair Runner
We know that we have 12 stairs and one extra riser and that the length of our Carpet runner needs to Be 20.5 ft long, the 1 Ft extra just in case s**t happens
Our Staircase is 36 inches wide from stringer to stringer or stringer to rail!
We decided on a 28-inch wide stair runner So the Answer to How Much Material We Need For Our Stair Runner is???
The Answer is we Need a Stair Runner that is 20.5 feet Long and 28 inches Wide! Boom! Mind Blown
I hope this Helped You Out Let Me Know if It, Did I Had Fun Writing it, My name is Keith Shannon I Am the Owner and Founder of DirectCarpet.com
I've been a Carpet Installer for Over 25 Years and Have a Great YouTube Channel on How to Install a Stair Runner!
If You're Looking for the Perfect Stair Runner Sold By The Foot we Have that at www.directcarpet.com Please visit us Online.
We do Custom Orders, Our Runners Can Come in Any Length, We Offer Free Shipping for Over 250$ and Free UnderPad
Outstanding videos! You really do a great job explaining the process. How do I measure my two
Pie shaped steps for the runner?
Can you please provide instructions for measuring a winding/curve staircase for custom cutting? Thank you!
How do I measure only my treads I have 12 treads @ 36 1/8” wide X 12 1/2” deep and one landing 38” deep X 36 1/8” wide. I only want to carpet my treads only. My residents is non Loveland co and love your DIY!!!!! Pls let me know so I can order from you guys and I will be doing the installation myself. I have the tools already.
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