Stair Tread Carpet

Stair tread carpet is carpet placed on a staircase to add beauty, protect the stairs from both ordinary wear and tear as well as non ordinary wear and tear like bumps, gouges, and chips, and of course help make the stairs less slippery, preventing potential falls and related injuries.

As opposed to stair tread rugs which are small rugs placed on stairs, stair tread carpet covers the entire stairs, typically in one piece, although multi piece designs and installations are popular as well. In some installations, the carpet may not cover the entire width of the stairs. This is often for reasons of fashion or beauty. For example, my neighbor has beautiful hard wood flooring including on the staircases. By having partial width stair tread carpet, they have its advantages as well as leaving some of the beautiful flooring exposed.

In my house, we have stair tread carpet as well as three very active little children aged 5, 7, and 9 years old and a large dog as well. The carpet is about 10 years old, heavily worn, and needs replacing sometime. No surprise as it gets very heavy wear and tear. It will be much easier to replace the stair carpet tread soon than to replace or somehow refinish the underlying stairs!

Stair tread carpet is used primarily indoors, but there are outdoor versions available as well and are often used on decks and their related staircases as well as similar outdoor locations.

Since it's made of carpet, not surprisingly it's available most places that carpeting is available. It's also available in a myriad of types, designs, colors, etc. just like carpeting.

It sometimes adds an extremely important visual element to one's home especially in areas like a master staircase visible from much of the home and it's not uncommon to spend an enormous amount of time and energy choosing exactly the right one. My wife and mother in law must have literally spent hundreds of hours over six plus months looking at numerous stores, bringing samples home, and having endless discussions before deciding on what our replacement would be. Of course an interior designer can offer advice here as well.

So carpet stair tread adds beauty and decor as well as making stairs less slippery and safer and protecting the stairs. In contrast, many types of stair tread like rubber and vinyl models are far more utilitarian and no one would describe them as adding beauty or enhancing the decor.