Stairs- going from carpet to hard material- slip concerns?

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Sprucebark
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Joined: Thu Aug 27, 2020 9:22 pm

Stairs- going from carpet to hard material- slip concerns?

Post by Sprucebark »

We are replacing the carpet upstairs in our house (it is old and smells like pet pee) with some vinyl flooring. We are going to use Cali Pro LVP. The stairs are currently carpeted as well and I want to replace with the vinyl flooring that we are putting in upstairs. My wife is afraid that it will be too slippery. She was thinking we could put in tile / stone for the stairs or something that has a little more grip.

Has anyone put in vinyl flooring on stairs? Is it slippery for humans and a big dog? Any alternatives?

It doesn’t seem very common to put down tile or stone work for stair steps.
invest4
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Re: Stairs- going from carpet to hard material- slip concerns?

Post by invest4 »

Considered some type of stair tread covers?
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Bengineer
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Location: NC

Re: Stairs- going from carpet to hard material- slip concerns?

Post by Bengineer »

We put non-skid tape on our slippery stairs just back from the nose where the ball of your foot falls when going down the stairs.
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Tubes
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Re: Stairs- going from carpet to hard material- slip concerns?

Post by Tubes »

I haven't seen vinyl floored stairs in ages. Actually, since I was a kid and I encountered smooth asphalt tiled steps. They were dangerous when moist because they were perfectly smooth.

For stairs, carpet has a lot going for it despite the downsides. Grip, cushion for minor falls, and so on. Stone tile scares me. I've only seen it outside and is always dangerous. Any slip and you hit your head and you can easily die.

My second favorite safe stair material is wood. Forgiving. Plenty of grip (as long as the finish is correct).

How about this, OP? Put the LVP on your stairs and either add a runner or tread cover. You still get the look, albeit slightly amended. And you get the grip. I have a few tread covers on my last steps to the basement, mostly to grab dirt. They are surprisingly grippy and secure, even though they are not attached in any way. You can remove them if you feel the LVP is OK. Some LVP has enough "grain" to it that it is very grippy.
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Carl53
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Re: Stairs- going from carpet to hard material- slip concerns?

Post by Carl53 »

We used LVP downstairs and recarpeted the upstairs in a house we recently purchased. I did not like the short tread the carpeted stairs provided previously. I decided to carpet only the treads and not the risers. Rather than having the back of the stairs to maintain painted, I acquired matching LVP to what we had installed downstairs but in the thinnest version that could be glued rather than the thicker cushioned version we used on the floors. Cut the pieces to fit the risers and used construction adhesive. I had the carpet outfit carpet only the tread rolling it over the lip attaching in on the underside to a piece of trim that was hidden. Had a lot of nice complements on the finished look and I have the safer deeper tread/toe kick.
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