Truly shocked how easy the DIY to freshen up and install a carpet runner down the stairs was! Truly an easy, solo, git ‘er done in one afternoon DIY! You may know, I’ve been having hard wood floor woes in this house for a couple months. After much consideration I decided to embrace the current floor color and leave the majority of the floors as is (not to refinish). However, for the stairs I had other plans. The red oak treads on both set of stairs (both sets of stairs up and down) were in pretty bad shape so I decided to clean them with a quick refinish and install a carpet runner myself. Had I known this was such an easy DIY I would have done this project years ago.
The red oak treads were in pretty bad shape so before I started the DIY to carpet the stairs I wanted to freshen them up a bit. I stripped the stairs to tone down some of the orange. Stripper I used is Citristrip Gel HERE. Then lightly hand sanded each tread and gave them a through cleaning. Using a 2″ stain brush HERE I brushed on a coat of Varathane Poly Stain HERE (stain and poly in one – LOVE this product because its stain (color) and poly in one so it saves an entire step in this process!) Stain color I used is Golden Oak. After applying 1st coat, let dry overnight before applying a 2nd coat of poly stain the next day.
TIP: When painting or staining stairs do every other one so the stairs can still be used while the product you apply dries. I notated which step was “safe to step on” with blue painters tape.
Now that the stair treads are clean, freshened up with poly stain and dry I can start the DIY to install the carpet runner. Tools needed are the rug of course. I bought two of these rugs HERE. Between the two lengths (22″ long each) they were the exact length needed to carpet two sets of stairs. The KEY to this DIY and making sure it turns out correct is all in the staple gun. You MUST use an electric or pneumatic stapler. A hand stapler or something less powerful will just not work. I purchased the electric staple gun HERE and it worked beautifully. Not a single jam and all the staples are not visible to the naked eye. I used only staples that were specifically recommended for this staple gun. Staples I used HERE. I purchased a carpet knife also but did not use and it was returned. I was able to cut the carpet with my kitchen scissors. Linked HERE if you buy a thicker carpet than one I used and need the carpet cutting knife.
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