Whats safer fr young children carpeted or laminated stairs?

[essexmick]

I've just bought a house with carpeted stairs, carpets in good condition.

My wife doesn't like carpet, she wants everything laminated/wood.

I don't mind the rooms being laminated but I was thinking that carpeted stairs would be safer, less slippy, for young children than laminate/wood stairs.

Be interested to hear what others think?

 

[Belboz]

FWIW in my opinion I would go for the carpets. Laminate can be slippy especially with certain types of footwear (e.g. slippers - no pun intended) You can get stuff to go over the laminate to give grip but that defeats the object of having laminate in the first place!

Also, the noise level with young kids clumping up and down stairs will soon get on your t&%s - believe me!

There are alternatives if 'er indoors wants wood but they will be more expensive.

I am sure the experts on here will give you further advice.

Good luck convincing 'er indoors!!

B

 

[gregers]

she will soon change her mind when she or 1 of the kids go ar5se over head.

 

[Avocet]

We (all of us) have fallen more times on our bare wood stairs than when they were carpeted. Youngest would have been about 4 or 5 when we did it. I'm nearly 50 now. We're all still alive though, and I still prefer not having the carpet.

One note though. If it's a modern house, when you rip the stair carpet off, you might find the risers are MDF. I had to cover the risers to make them more visually appealing

 

[kbdiy]

Carpet every time. Laminate is too noisy, especially on stairs, and as mentioned above, will be slippery.

Also making it look good on stairs could be quite tricky.

 

[essexmick]

We (all of us) have fallen more times on our bare wood stairs than when they were carpeted. Youngest would have been about 4 or 5 when we did it. I'm nearly 50 now. We're all still alive though, and I still prefer not having the carpet.

One note though. If it's a modern house, when you rip the stair carpet off, you might find the risers are MDF. I had to cover the risers to make them more visually appealing

Thanks for sharing your experience. Any chance you could explain 'risers' and MDF?

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

The riser is the vertical bit in-between each flat bit (the tread). MDF is a man-made type of 'wood' that has no grain and consequently does not look like real wood so looks poo if unfinished.

Personally I would never have un-carpeted stairs, heck you can fall up or down them even when they are carpeted. Let alone a running up or down wooden ones with just socks on.

 

[EddieM]

+1 for carpet, fitting laminate to stairs is tricky as has been said, plus slip factor and noise as has already been said.

 

[essexmick]

+1 for carpet, fitting laminate to stairs is tricky as has been said, plus slip factor and noise as has already been said.

Just out of interest what's the "+1" supposed to mean, is it shorthand for something. Its the second time I've seen someone prefacing their comment with this.

 

[EddieM]

just means another "vote" for.

 

[footprints]

And yet another +1

 

[Avocet]

When we did it, the treads were white pine and varnished up quite nicely. The risers (as mentioned), were MDF. As I'd covered the landing with cork tiles, I also stuck them on the risers. Doesn't look bad actually. The biggest problem is how to make the top of the stairs meet whatever floor covering is on the landing. I ended up buying a thin bit of (almost!) matching pine and sanding it so that it looked as if the top step was slightly thicker. Quite messy to do nicely though.

 

[essexmick]

When we did it, the treads were white pine and varnished up quite nicely. The risers (as mentioned), were MDF. As I'd covered the landing with cork tiles, I also stuck them on the risers. Doesn't look bad actually. The biggest problem is how to make the top of the stairs meet whatever floor covering is on the landing. I ended up buying a thin bit of (almost!) matching pine and sanding it so that it looked as if the top step was slightly thicker. Quite messy to do nicely though.

Did you find the stairs slippy compared to carpeted ones?

Any falls etc?

 

[Avocet]

Yes, definitely slippier. We've pretty much all fallen at some point (or at least slipped). (Also hurts more because they're harder). Nothing fatal though. On balance, we prefer the look, feel and cleanliness of the bare wood.

 

[sifly]

Definately carpet. Not only quieter for you and the neighbours (if halls a joining), but the kids can't slide down the stairs on their bottoms if it's wood