Fitting a striped stair runner - possible?

[northcoombes]

Hi all

I was keen to have a Kersaint Cobb Tangier sisal stair runner fitted however a fitter told our carpet supplier that it would be very difficult to get the stripes lined up on the three winders.

Is there a secret he soesn't know about, or failing that, would a striped wool carpet be any easier than the sisal?

Many thanks
Michelle

 

[northcoombes]

Oops sorry - did not realise it went through the first time

 

[crazydaze]

Michelle

It's not possible to get a perfect pattern repeat on winders.

The carpet has to run over the nose of each stair with the weave of the carpet, the stripe's will not meet perfectly due to the angles as each winder is fitted individually and will cause the pattern o run out.

Don't be too worried about this, it will still look fine, usually the first winder meets the bottom stairs fine, it will be the 2nd winder and possibly the others that run out and it probably wont be visable from the bottom of the stairs, only from the top.

You probably won't really notice unless you really look for it.

 

[northcoombes]

Thank you - that's very encouraging as I had my heart set on stripes. Just need to find a brave carpet fitter now

 

[crazydaze]

A striped wool runner would be more practical and be better to fit than natural sisal, but finding a style you like may take some research.

Whatever you choose, I'd recommend fitting on a Crumb Rubber such as Duraly Treadmore underlay or natural felt such as Axminster's Axfelt 65. Loop product does not wear particularly well or evenly on the PU Foam products such as Cloud9.

The Louis de Poortere ranges such as Colour-Net are very very nice, Ryalux and Axminster/Tintawn have some nice designs launched recently too. Many manufacturers are getting in on the 'stripe' fashion at the moment, but you'll find the better quality ranges are much cleaner and crisper in the finish, plus the stripes will be straight!!!!

 

[northcoombes]

Thank you crazydaze - will have a look.

 

[nest]

You can match a stripped runner on winders but dont expect to find many people to do it an it involves mitre and joining each winder across the centre of each tread which in itself is bad practice as the join will open with the twisting.. I was taught at Brintons how to do it but it's just not practical with concern to the wearlife of the carpet itself..
I would find a forgiving or more random stripe and live with it running off.. provided the rest is fitted well it shouldn't bother you too much.. I am talking of a tuffted wool runner but as for sisal I would not recommend that for stairs at all.. Over time it gets very slippy on the nosings and can be hazardous..

 

[lymmranger]

totally agree with all the comments above - especially with regard to sisal/seagrass type floorcoverings.

- the manufacturers didnt (until very recently) reccomend their usage on stairs. Of course as soon as arty farty designers started using them on TV shows that all suddenly changed!
I fail to realise why people seem intent on fitting what amounts to a bale of straw woven into a floorcovering.

just to reaffirm the striped carpet issue - again I blame those dam designers - you will end up purchasing more carpet (to enable the best possible match) than if you went for a plain.

Oh and stair rods will add around another £500 to the overall cost - so be warned!!!!