Hamilton, ON Stairs, landings and winders Runners and full-width fits

Stair Carpet Installation in Hamilton, ON

Hamilton Carpet Installers fits stair carpet and runners on the steep, narrow and winding staircases found in houses throughout Hamilton, Ontario.

Waterfall or cap-and-band finish

Nosings wrapped, never left square

Each tread measured on its own

Tell us about your staircase

Number of steps, any winders or landings, and whether it is a runner or a full-width fit.

What can we help with?

Service

So the right crew reviews your project.

Or call (289) 204-6246

Ways to finish a staircase

The finish changes the look, the wear pattern and the amount of carpet a flight swallows.

Waterfall

The carpet runs over the nosing and drops straight down to the next tread. Quick, hard-wearing and the usual choice on a family staircase.

Cap and band

The carpet is wrapped around the nosing and tucked under the tread, then a separate piece covers the riser. More cutting, more material, a sharper line.

Winders and landings

A pie-shaped winder is cut and fitted as its own piece so the pile still runs down the flight and the seam sits in the angle.

Another way to finish a runner

Runner with exposed edges

A narrower band up the centre with finished edges and the wood showing either side. Suits a stained or painted staircase you do not want to hide.

Measuring

Old stairs get measured one tread at a time

A third of this city’s homes, 32.8 percent, were built in 1960 or earlier, well above the Ontario figure of 22.7 percent. Their staircases were built by hand, and no two treads in a flight are reliably the same width.

Ontario’s building code sets private stairs inside a dwelling at a rise of 125 to 200 mm, a run of 210 to 355 mm and a tread depth of 235 to 355 mm. That is the envelope a stair carpet has to be cut to, and on a century staircase every step is checked against it rather than assumed.

Stairs are one of the few places in a house where a single flat measurement does not work. Every tread gets templated on its own, the finish you choose changes how the flight wears, and older Hamilton staircases add narrow winders and steep pitches into the mix. Call (289) 204-6246 to talk through what your flight needs.

Runners, rods and finished edges

A runner leaves the timber showing and wants its edges finished, either with a binding tape or a serged edge, with the width chosen so the margins are even on both sides of the flight.

Rods are decorative on a fitted runner: the carpet itself is held by gripper and staples, and the rods sit across the back of each tread for the look. If you are supplying your own rods, tell us the diameter before we fit so the brackets land in the right place.

Stair carpet questions

Waterfall or cap-and-band – which should I choose?

Waterfall wears well, uses less carpet and goes down faster. Cap-and-band gives a crisper edge and shows off a shaped nosing, at the cost of more material and more labour. On a busy family staircase we usually point people at waterfall.

Can you carpet winder stairs?

Yes. Each winder is templated and cut on its own, with the seam placed in the tight angle where nobody walks, so the pile keeps running in one direction down the flight.

Why are stairs priced by the step rather than the square foot?

Because time, not area, is what a staircase costs. Stairs, landings and closets are where a carpet job in this city gets expensive: older Hamilton houses have steep, narrow and winding flights that take far longer per square foot than an open bedroom.

What happens to the nosing under the carpet?

It gets wrapped. The building code asks for a rounded or bevelled nosing edge of 6 to 13 mm, and allows that to drop to 3 mm where a resilient material covers it, which is exactly why a carpeted nosing is pulled around the edge instead of left square.

Do I have to carpet the whole staircase at once?

No. A flight can be done on its own and the landing left for later, though carpet from two separate orders rarely matches, so if the landing is going to be covered eventually it is worth buying the material together.

Century-home staircases and carpet choice

Older neighbourhoods, older stairs

Staircases in the north end, Crown Point, Durand and the older Mountain streets were framed before anybody standardised a stair, and run steeper, narrower and more often onto winders than a modern flight.

Every tread templated on its own

A stair carpet cut from one set of measurements will not fit a flight like that, so we template the treads and risers individually rather than assume they match.

Low-pile loop or tight twist for the nosing

A dense low-pile loop or a tight twist holds an edge over a nosing far better than a deep plush, which flattens on the front of every tread within a couple of winters.

How we fit the nosing and tread

The nosing takes the wear

Every footstep lands on the same 40 mm of carpet at the front edge of a tread, which is why a staircase wears out years before the bedrooms above it do.

Gripper set into the angle

Gripper goes into the angle at the back of each tread, then the carpet is pulled tight over the nosing and stapled out of sight beneath the overhang.

Full-width fits trimmed into the stringers

On a full-width fit the carpet is trimmed into the stringers on both sides of the flight.