Fitting Stair Carpet ?

[Bowness72]

Hi,

I have recently, for the first time, fitted a carpet to a small bedroom. This went a lot better than I expected so has given me enough confidence to "consider" fitting a new stair carpet myself, so...... How much more difficult is fitting a stair carpet ?

Cheers

 

[kbdiy]

In my experience no more difficult than any room carpet. Main thing is to make sure the gripper rod is in good condition so it holds the treads firmly. Also I think (but others may contradict) that working from the bottom upwards makes it easier to get good tension in the risers.

 

[lymmranger]

Errrrrrrrrr..........

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!! kbdiy is wrong

stairs should be fitted from the top down, ensure you have fitted the pile direction correctly or your carpet will wear out quickly

you will need to chisel the carpet into the tread/riser very hard and the gripper needs to be in the correct position to prevent the carpet coming out again

etc

...........Are you sure you want to do this? if you get it wrong someone will end up descending the stairs much quicker than planned - you may even get sued by the resultant paraplegic

Hopefully one of the fitters will be along soon to try and convince you to get a pro in (I am a flooring retailer NOT a fitter)

If you insist on proceeding we will try and help

 

[Bowness72]

Thanks guys....

I'm 50/50 at the moment but forgot to mention that I have winders at the top. Would I need to do each one of those individually ?

 

[crazydaze]

The winders are all seperate, the pile needs to lay over the nosings square, not following the angle of the wall stringers. Traditionally straights are fitted from the bottom up but most fitters will lay from the top down.

If you are fitting anything with a design, a stripe or anything that needs to line up all the way up the stairs and onto the landing, leave it to the profesionals, you won't be saving much money doing it yourself.

The gripper needs to be fitted correctly, depending on the style of stair case and type of carpet you may need to fold the edges of the carpet in some areas and pin it.

If you have a curved bottom step (bull nose) there are two ways of fitting it, the coomon way is to cap and band the bully using a seperate piee of carpet glued to the riser and a second piece fitted and pinned under the nose.

The proper way of fitting a step like this is to hand sew the bully, this ensures that the waterfall fitting down the face of each stair is mirrored on the bottom step too.

Fitting a staircase is far far far far more involved than fitting a square room.

 

[big-all]

why do people think its ok to damage and weaken the treads on a stair by hammering carpet through a structural part off the stairs

then they wonder why the stairs creak

 

[Bowness72]

Thanks again for your comments guys.....

big-all..... I have heard that hammering carpet grips loosens the wedges but what do you recommend instead ?

Although it's already carpetted so I expect has grips already

 

[big-all]

haven't got a clue really
i just know i am[was] kept busy repairing "damaged"creaky stairs

 

[kbdiy]

Traditionally straights are fitted from the bottom up but most fitters will lay from the top down.

@lymmranger - you might like to review the advice given above!

 

[lymmranger]

Traditionally straights are fitted from the bottom up but most fitters will lay from the top down.

@lymmranger - you might like to review the advice given above!

I think you will find that over 90% of carpets fitted today are modern tufted carpets. Crazydaze is correctly stating that traditional (mainly Axminster) carpets were (and rarely still are) fitted from the bottom up. This allowed extra carpet to be folded underneath the bottom two steps. This subsequently allowed the carpet to be re-fitted exposing the folded under bit and folding under the top two stairs - this helped the carpet to last longer. - i accept that my powers of explanation here are poor...
suffice to say that ALL the carpets "affordable" by most of us mere mortals are designed to be fitted as I suggested.
Bear in mind Crazydaze is one of the top fitters in the country - he tends to fit the very best and charges accordingly....
I suspect that the OP is not proposing to DIY fit a carpet that will cost him/her over £100m2 it will most likely be a modern "tufted" and this needs careful attention to pile direction and fitting from the top down.

I was not "flaming you" I was pointing out that there is a hell of alot more to fittinga stair carpet than your post suggested. The OP has subsequently "added" winders into the equation - even more reason to get a pro in. Crazydaze also correctly pointed out that most stairs have a bullnose - more complications!

I have been selling flooring for a hell of along time, I have been advising on here for quite a while too - I have never claimed to be a fitter in any of my posts and always deffered to the experts.

BUT.......

I deal with the end user i.e. You the customer on a daily basis and I assure you that most customers "kick off" at the cost of "standard fitting" I would love to see their face at paying for "cap and banding" never mind traditional fitting.

 

[crazydaze]

Lymmranger is spot on, nothing to add, well explained bud!

(Except the fitter bit, I'm in the same boat as you on the retail side, but we do specialise in high end donestic work more often than not)

I expect, and my fitting team know, that sewing a bully should be done whenever possible, unfortunately the Carpet R**** of this world feel this impacts too much in their costs/time and thus are dumbing down the quality of what consumers SHOULD expect from the correct fitting of flooring in their homes.

Sorry for the rant, more news on Axminster in the papers again, makes me angry how the British consumer is blinkered by big TV advertising and suckered into thinking that 75% off is a genuine offer and that underlay manufacturers just give their stuff away for free, and you know fitters fit carpets for free too?? Well just what do they feed their family with? How do they pay the mortgage? Their vans? Their tools?

British consumers, your being conned!

 

[lymmranger]

I`m bloody lucky if my fitters own a pair of napping shears

....the team that do have them are team leaders (NVQ1 so clearly are the cocky ones)

they certainly do NOT sew anything (hmmm may suggest it for a laugh)

EDIT - not sure CR are entirely to blame - the younger fitting generation just do not give a stuff AND they have ALL the excuses including being permanantly skint despite earning a hell of alot of CASH!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[dhutch]

If you have a curved bottom step (bull nose) there are two ways of fitting it, the coomon way is to cap and band the bully using a seperate piee of carpet glued to the riser and a second piece fitted and pinned under the nose.

The proper way of fitting a step like this is to hand sew the bully, this ensures that the waterfall fitting down the face of each stair is mirrored on the bottom step too.

Presumably the below image is how you would expect it to be done, as described intially. The upper stairs have the carpet runing directly from the nose of the tread to the next tread (is this whats refered to as waterfall?) but then the last step is cap and band, with the two parts, nailed to the underside the the tread, and the the riser.

http://www.leemillscarpets.co.uk/leemills/gallerix/albums/1/8/original/hessian-stair-carpet.jpg

And without overly wishing to hijack the thread; If you wanted to have the last step matching, where would you have to go, what would you ask for, and how much would you expect to pay.

Obviously the other way is to just have a stair runner, with exposed stair and bulnose either side, aka :

http://decoratorsnotebook.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/striped-stair-carpet.jpg?w=490


Daniel

 

[crazydaze]

Yep, all of that is as you describe.

If you want a bullnose sewn so it's fully covered and waterfall, then speak to the fitter or company that is quoting for the work and specify that the bullnose MUST be sewn, you shouldn't have to pay extra for this.

Both our fitting teams are in their late 30's/early 40's, both have apprentices, and both will teach them how to sew a bully, having these skills is part of being a good fitter, fortunately both teams have found themselves fitting quality work for their careers not by accident, but by being good at what they do, having had good aprenticeships themselves and taking pride and responsibility in their work. Don't get me wrong, they can be a proper pain in the a$$ at times, but rarely will there be an issue with the actual fitting.