Flooring for Basement Stairs

10 years ago

I am in the process of renovating my basement. I have created a TV room with hardwood floors. Adjacent is an area that goes out onto a deck that will have wood-looking tiles. I realized today that in all the planning of what to do with my basement I didn't consider what I should do with the stairs going into the basement. The stairs are currently covered by an old carpet and come down to the area that will be tiled. I would like to replace the carpet with carpet since I think that would be the cheapest option, but I am afraid it would look weird. The main floor is hardwood, so you would go from a hardwood floor, to the carpeted stairs, to a tiled floor, then a few feet away back to hardwood. Any suggestions on what type of flooring I should use on the stairs? Is retreading the stairs a cost effective option?

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Comments (4)

gregmills_gw
10 years ago
Assuming its a standard full set of steps adding hardwood treads is not a cheap option.

If you want cheap carpet is the way to go.
Will carpet look "odd" with the rest of your flooring choices? Maybe. Depends on the look of everything else.

Would hardwood treads look better? Maybe just being consistant. But a lot of it depends on the rest of the house.

My thought is, if its in the budget to do wood treads then do it. If not in the budget i dont think carpet is going to make or break your home.
jules8
10 years ago
I currently have carpet throughout a three-level townhome and will be installing wood on all the floors. I plan on keeping carpet on the stairs and the two landings. So mine will have carpet flowing through all three floors. It seems that your situation is different. do you only have the one set of stairs? if so, I would spend the $ on wood treads to give it a uniform look.

I have dogs and have concerns about their safety when running down the stairs and also about their damaging the wood treads.
Wood floors in my neighborhood is an upgrade that less than half the homes have, so I'm hoping that potential buyers will be happy with the wood floors and if they want wood stairs, they can do the work.
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annkh_nd
10 years ago
My house is a split, so we're up and down the stairs all the time. The only time any of my dogs have had an issue was when my lab was really, really old, and then we put tread-sized carpet with a non-stick back on the stairs for him. That worked fine.

I have carpet going downstairs, and can't wait to replace them with hardwood, even though we have carpet at the bottom of the stairs. They are just so much easier to keep clean.
bikey
9 years ago
If you are still pondering this question - try painting the stairs the same color as your trim, then putting a good quality stair runner on them. Runners are common on stairs, even between two floors that hardwood. The trim color would be visible an inch or two on each side.