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Link To All Good Questions
Link To All Good Questions
Good question: How to make wood stairs less slippery?
butt bruise I've ever seen in my life, but I don't want this to happen to anyone else. How can you make wood stairs less dangerous in a way that is attractive? I've never really seen carpet runners and the things that hold them down done in a way that i like. We had thick black rubber treads adhesed to the basement stairs in my house growing up -- VERY ugly. I would love to hear if anyone has found a cool, elegant, attractive or clever way to solve this problem.
Alicia, congratualtions on your recent remodel. Hardwood floors are a beautiful addition to any home. While we don't have any concrete answers to your questions, we do think it's the new varnish rather than the wood that is causing the issue. We suspect with some good dirt tracking in over some time [1-2 months] that the varnish will stop being so slick.
There is one other item we thought of but we give the advice cautiously as we don't know the results... Possible use of super fine sandpaper or light rubbing of steel wool in the high traffic area just to dull the varnish a little, little bit? Again we don't know for sure...possibly try a little corner to see how it would look if you go that direction would be our advice. We are also having thoughts of the use of surf wax...but don't know enough about it to advise.
Readers anyone have a tip for Alicia and her bum?
Comments (16)
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Perhaps buy some FLOR tiles and cut them to size.
But I think a stair-runner with stair-rods would look nicer/classier...
Wearing slippers with tread on them seems to be the most effective way of eliminating the slip...
I'll second the stair-runner with rods idea. Classic and classy. Lots of places will custom make them and you can get modern patterns (although I prefer the centuries old Persian designs myself). If you do a stair runner, pay the extra and get wool, it feels a lot better and lasts longer.
Found this on Google :
http://www.stair-carpet-runners-online.com/
Besides - slippers with treads isn't an option for pets... ;->
I just want to add that I had the same problem in my duplex, and those hardwood floors were at least 3 years old. Still slippin! Not only did I fall a couple times, but my roomie feel about three times. So, I don't think that this problem will go away with the varnish wearing out for a couple of months.
Sorry, I don't really have any attractive options to recommend. Good luck!
what about mixing a little bit of fine clear sand with some polyurethane & using it to paint some clear-ish treads?
Yeah, I'm not sure why i said "recently". We redid them last summer. I guess time's been flying. Still slippery, though. I'll take a look at the stair runner link. I always fear that will look too dowdy or formal. But maybe i just haven't come acorss a style I like yet. The clear tread and FLOR tile ideas are good too. thanks everyone!
There was a port on this on the ATSF site a little while ago (click my name for link). These seemed like a nice modern take on traditional stair runners.
An option is to apply (small: about 1 cm wide) non-slip strips near the edge of each step. I have seen them in black colour which should look not too ugly. Perhaps other colours are available?
Anyway: "Safety first - design an style have to follow"!
You can tape off rectangles on the stair tread and paint on rectangles of a mixture of varnish and a coarse grit. This makes for a tidy and unobtrusive-looking safety solution - totally non-slip. We have this on a wooden circular staircase in a kids' playroom in this complex.
Do not wait for them to wear down. It will not happen. I visit my parents regularly and fall down their stairs wearing socks about once a year unless I am REALLY careful and these are no longer remotely new stairs. And my sister's dog has skidded down and had to be caught a couple of times (not a young or light dog so no fun). No suggestions, just the warning, sorry.
we have wood floors thru out our entire house, stairs too. i was worried about my children slipping. we have a rule: no socks...bare feet or slippered feet only. all of our slippers have no-skid soles. the other rule is "no running on the stairs." believe or not children can learn to not run.
if you don't want to cover up your stairs, you need adjust your lifestyle a tad. go slowly, hold the handrail, and ban the socks. :) i can understand not wanting to cover the stairs because they are beautiful.
i like the alto stair treads. then again, i like mid-century modern interiors. if your home decor is more traditional, i suppose the runners/rods solution would work, but i have never seen any that i would consider.
The skymall magazine sells small oval rugs to go on each step for exactly this reason. http://www.skymall.com/shopping/detail.htm?pid=101895917&c=10440
They aren't terribly chic, but they are better looking than black treads. They come in a couple different colors and sell for 24.95 for a set of four. Good luck!
I did a little poking around and found a possible solution. "Skid Safe" It's a sealer..
http://ndclean.com/skidsafe.html
"Does not yellow, crack, peel, flake, nor chip"
and has a 5 year warranty.
Sounds good to me.
All the old houses in our neighborhood use "slip proof" tape on each tread. We've had ours in place for over 9 years and it has never lifted up.
We use the skinny version so that it isn't highly visible on the end of each tread.
We picked ours up at Home Depot and it was CHEAP. I'm sure any hardware store carries similar products.
http://www.noskidding.com/antisliptape.html