Stair Treads: The Perfect No-Damage Carpet Solution for your Stairs

Time: 30 min

Cost: $60-$90 per stair

Skill: Easy

Note: I am not associated with Oak Valley Designs in any capacity, I purchased this product and my opinions are my own.

For most of my adult (homeowner) life, I have considered myself a dark flooring girl. That is until I had white oak floors, and let me tell you, white oak stairs with black iron railings do not disappoint. I am head over heals in love with my stairs, and no, I’m not exaggerating. I talk about them daily.

Unfortunately this love made it SO hard to cover them up. I’ve read countless posts about clear adhesive treads, diy stair runners, and the myriad of other stair covering options. None of which met our needs.

Our primary considerations:

• Aesthetic
• Damage Potential
• Cost
• Quality (wool)

Despite a year of searching, nothing I saw made me happy enough to cover our beautiful stairs. UNTIL I came across these stair treads. With plenty of modern options, that won’t damage your stairs, Oak Valley Designs has truly changed the stair tread game.

For the first time I felt like there was an option that would preserve our gorgeous white oak stairs while also creating a safer environment for our dog (and presumably our baby once he becomes mobile).

Oak Valley Designs has a solid selection of carpet options that align with the current trends I’ve been seeing all over Pinterest, as well as plenty of more traditional options in a range of materials. Not to mention, they come in multiple depths and widths, making it easy to find what you need without going the custom route. Although their small custom fee makes it easy to do so, especially if your project doesn’t quite fit into their standard selection of sizes or styles.

While you can order carpet samples for $1, we opted to order the actual treads to see which we liked best. Be sure to check the return policy for updates, but we were able to easily return the ones we didn’t select!

We actually had them quote a custom length for the upper set of stairs since they are about 8 inches wider than the lower set, and based on the estimate we received the treads themselves would have been the same cost per tread ($79) plus a $221 custom fee. Honestly, that’s not bad considering we wanted to add a few extra inches, but due to time constraints and a tight budget we opted to stick with the standard size options.

Before finalizing our decision to go with these treads, we also got several quotes for full carpet stair runners, all of which came back around $3500 for a runner in this same carpet option – Stanton Carpet, Crescent Collection, Ticking Stripe in Shadow.

Our order for 14 treads, with a 10% discount, came to $995.40. This works out to $71.10 per tread, compared to $250 a step if we had gone with a full runner in the same exact carpet.

Before we jump into the simple installation process for the Oak Valley stair treads, let’s review what we like about this product and a few things to be aware of if you are looking to purchase.

What we like:

• Cost – our midrange option was $71.10/tread for wool carpet. It’s hard to beat that!
• Standard options – plenty of standard options ranging from 25” to 35” in width, and 8” to 11” in depth, in a wide range of styles.
• Ease of installation – literally the easiest installation process that only takes a minute or two per tread.
• Custom charge is only $200(ish) – a very reasonable custom charge and no change in the actual tread cost despite the change in size.
• Cost doesn’t change – whether you need 25” or 35” the treads are the same price! This worked well for us since we have wide stairs.
• Regular promotions for 10% to 15% savings, and free shipping on standard domestic orders – who doesn’t love discounts and free shipping? We also weren’t charged our Massachusetts tax which was nice!

Where they could improve:

• Production time for standard options – our treads took 6 weeks to arrive. I would have liked to see faster production for anything in their standard line.
• Shipping – our box arrived severely damaged and was broken open, exposing the stair treads. It is no secret that shipping companies man handle these cardboard boxes and if they have any weight to them it becomes quite easy to break them open. To our surprise the treads had no protective plastic covering them in the box.
• Production quality control – our treads are not the same length, only one was actually 35”, the others varied between 34 5/8” to 34 7/8”. This seems like a quality control issue with their manufacturing process, and was quite annoying, but we waited 6 weeks for these so we made it work. I did my best to sort them so the ones closer to 35” were on our wider upper set of stairs.

How to Install Stair Treads

Here is a list of tools and supplies I used to complete this project.

Materials

• Cleaning supplies (vacuum and wash cloth)
• Painters tape
• Tape Measurer

Step One: Prepare the Surface

One of the best ways to make sure any type of adhesive does its intended job of adhering, is to make sure you give it a clean surface, free of debris, which can include dust and small particles that may not be visible to the naked eye.

I started by vacuuming our stairs and then going step by step and wiping them down with a wet wash cloth. Then we simply allowed the steps to air dry before moving onto the next step.

Step Two: Measure and Mark the Placement of the Stair Tread

I messed this up a couple of times because I assumed each step would be the same reveal on the left side. As I mentioned before none of the stair treads were identical in width, and apparently neither are our stairs. Thankfully these treads just pull up and can easily be readjusted if it doesn’t go down quite right.

Ultimately I found it easiest to place the tread down (plastic backing included) and measure each side to the wall, creating an equal reveal on the left and right, and then marking just one side with a piece of painters tape.

Tip: don’t wrap the painters tape around the edge of the step so that you can use it to line up the stair tread before adhering it. I found this particularly helpful because if the tape is flat and you move your perspective, it never seems to go down where you want it to. Whereas having it extend out gives you a solid guide to bump up against.

Step Three: Remove the Plastic Backing on the Stair Tread and Apply with Pressure

Now that you know where you want your stair tread to be placed, you are going to remove the plastic backing which covers the adhesive. It is easily removed, and I found it best to do this one at a time to avoid having it exposed to debris.

Once the backing is removed, align the nose over the stair edge and against your handy painters tape guide, and use pressure to push the tread from front to back onto the step.

Again, don’t stress if it’s not perfect the first time, you just peel it up, adjust, and reattach. After a step or two you will get the hang of it!

Repeat with each step!

Enjoy your beautiful new wool stair treads!

And just like that you have a quality cost effective carpet stair solution that will preserve your stairs for many years to come! Not to mention, easily replaceable if there is ever any damage.

These “ticking stripe” treads in the color shadow, have added such a nice warmth to our home, and have helped to curb that sterile feeling of a newly renovated but sparsely decorated space.

This easy do-it-yourself installation project can easily refresh your staircase while also serving a practical purpose! You are sure to find something that fits your individual style at Oak Valley Designs, and I would love to see your vision come to life.

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