I’m sitting inside on a sweltering day and my thoughts are turning to inside improvements. We need to rip out carpeting in our upstairs bedroom and on our staircase. We have a typical midwestern 90’s style house with the orangy woodwork. The floor the stairs ends on is a neutral ceramic tile. Our front door is pretty much in front of the stairs. Anyhow, I don’t want solid carpeting on the stairs anymore. Would LVF look tacky on stairs? Would it be better to put wood down with a runner? Just trying to get started on the process and I am not good at decorating ideas. Thanks!
I love my LVP flooring that replaced very nice hardwoods - good LVP looks very much like wood and feels likeit ifs put in properly. However, when we spoke with the flooring contractor he discouraged us from putting LVP or hardwoods on the stairs, not because of looks, but because of our age and that we intended to live in the house for quite a while longer. He said it is much easier to slip on solid surface stairs than on carpeting. I didn’t know that, still not sure, but he convinced me it was safer to keep the carpeting which we redid the entire upstairs and stair cases. Just a thought. Look wise - I could either way, but the solid surface may be more aesthetically pleasing with a flow up and out of the downstairs.
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Probably depends on the type of surface, but I personally found the carpeted stairs in our previous 2 houses way more slippery than the solid wood stairs at our current house.
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I would do the same wood on the stairs as your other wood floors. Otherwise it will look disjointed. If in your budget, refinish your floors at the same time you do your stairs so it will all blend nicely. Then you can pick a more up to date floor stain.
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Our downstairs is the 100+ original oak floor (we tore up the gold shag when we bought the house 28 years ago). We put a carpet runner on the stairs, the same carpet we have upstairs, because at the time we had a baby and a toddler and were planning on having more kids. There is a large window on the small landing as well, so I did not feel comfortable with just wood.
I have oak hardwood floor and stairs. They look very nice. We love the decision to have hardwood stairs and don’t regret it. However, a couple of months ago, I slipped and fell down the stairs (half way down, about 6 steps) and hit my shoulder and head against the front door. I am in my mid 60’s. It was a miracle I did not break any bone. I might have had a mild concussion.
Hardwood (at least mine) stairs can be slippery esp. when one is a bit in a rush. In not too far future, we probably will put a carpet runner on the stairs.
Whatever material you choose, consider safety, too, if you choose to age in place like us.
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If whatever wood the stairs are made of now are in good shape I would consider painting the stairs and doing a runner down the middle. You can do something more “lightweight” and not heavy looking.
What type of decor do you lean in your house now? Traditional? Modern? Farmhouse? That will help us help you.
Here are a couple of photos I have pinned of painted stairs/runner - but I do not know what your decorating preferences are.
Or paint the railing, do a runner and take away the focus from the wood color:
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@abasket - these look good. I’m sure if we were to do wood steps, we would have to redo the steps altogether as I think they are plywood (or something similar underneath the carpet). That isn’t a big deal. I get the slippery aspect people are talking about and would certainly do a runner on the wood. So, it sounds like more like wood with a runner than LVP?
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That’s what we did. Tore out all the carpeting and replaced it with maple flooring. It looks really nice.
One piece of advice: Get a craftsman to do the stairs. We have two sets of stairs. The first one was done by a guy who wasn’t very good. The second one was done by an expert. Wow, what a difference! Fortunately, we don’t go up the subpar stairs very often.
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This is what we have and am very happy with it. Runner is not thick and helps prevent slips, imo. I slipped once on plain wooden stairs and it was not fun.
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In a previous house we added carpet to our wood stairs very similar to the first photo @abasket shared and were very pleased.
As others have mentioned, it is important to have skilled craftsman do the work. While I’ve never had to go through converting stairs to wood, I did have an issue (miscommunication?) with our carpet installer. They began installing the runner like in the second photo shared by abasket… not stapling the carpet under the lip of the step. Maybe some people prefer that, but absolutely not okay for me. Luckily I saw what they were doing before they were far along so it wasn’t major to correct it. I had never seen it done any other way than what I wanted/expected (as in the first photo) so didn’t know to specify up front. In hindsight, I’m surprised they didn’t ask me about it.
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Ah didn’t realize your stairs may now be like a plywood. I think the combo of wood and a runner (like my pics) is very fresh looking, popular, SAFE, and sort of makes everyone happy (the bare stairs people and the people who like a “carpet”!
Hollywood is the tucked style. I much prefer that over the other style, waterfall, for carpeting. Waterfall is fine for thinner runners, but I think Hollywood is much more polished for thicker carpeting (and holds up better in higher traffic).
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Thank you for educating me on the proper terminology! 
Perhaps I should have researched that before having it installed! hahaha
I know a lot of more or less useless stuff, and the Rolodex in my brain appreciates it when I trot some of it out!
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We have a Hollywood style runner on our stairs. And when we replace the flooring upstairs, we will still have a runner on the stairs. It’s just not as noisy when one goes up and down the stairs, and I’d rather land on a carpeted surface on the stairs if I do fall (hasn’t happened yet…but it could).
Our upstairs plan is to have the master done in hardwood, and the upper hallway done in hardwood. The other three bedrooms will have a tight woven plush…and not a deep one…but with a good pad.
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I have a question for those of you with runners on the stairs and dogs who shed furiously: Is it hard to keep those stairs clean and free of dog hair, with the mixed materials? I don’t want all wood–I do find it slippery, and it would be slippery for our aging dog.
We currently have a wood stairway with carpet on them but with wood edges (I hate the carpet it’s a plush type - that’s why I have options pinned for the photos above - so we can replace!) - anyway I just take the vacuum cleaner attachment to the stairs every couple of weeks - our pup sheds quite a bit. But it blends with the carpet
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Vacuum works fine and we have a LOT of cat hairs!
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Waterfall carpeting is the worst when it comes to slippery steps because it hides the edge of the step. Hollywood or edge/over style carpet is slightly better. If the carpet is plush, it is still harder for the eye to judge the actual solid end of the step. With hardwood, the edge is what the eye sees. No ifs or buts about it.
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