I hope never to have carpeted stairs again - nightmare to clean, so I applaud removing yours! What about cork on the stairs (and painted risers)?

I agree with zeepage -- keep the carpet off --

The "problem" we are having is that when I had an agent go through the house, we have too many floor finishes in the house. Since the cost of carpet installation costs so much due to multiple spindles, we decided to do the upstairs hallway with laminate. We were planning on matching the stairs with this laminate upstairs. However, the agent is concerned if we do this, the stairs which become a main feature on the main floor, will not match the hardwood we have downstairs. The stairs will connect with the main floor with tile flooring. the hardwood on the main floor is in the dining area and the front living room. We "could" do the stairs to match the downstairs hardwood but then we will have to redo the upstairs hallway. What we want right now is the cheapest solution possible. I agree that for long term improvement, hardwood is the way to go but we have had the change of heart to move and now want to finish all our unfinished projects as quickly and cheaply as possible.

Hi Susan! Whatever you choose to put on the stairs, be sure to take into account that the treads you have now are plywood and the fronts are not very nicely finished. If you use a surface material like cork you'll need to figure out how you're going to finish the front of the tread. I assume you're going to be putting the house on the market soon and you really don't want to leave this as a chore for the next owner. They'll probably not want to deal with it anymore than you do and that could affect your sale. Try to find a carpet texture called "cut berber". It's got all the advantages of berber in that it is modern and clean looking. It also has the good qualities of shag in that it gives a safe footing on stairs and won't cost as much to lay because of the texture and longer fibers. You can get a medium quality for not a lot of money. Also look for a carpet remnant store in your area. Most cities of any size have them and you can get a lot of carpet for a reasonable amount.

Can you take a pic of the top and bottom of your stairs at each level.

Since your moving.... Carpet those plywood stairs and risers with a multi height cut pile carpet. Berber adds a lot of money to the labor cost. If the realtor wants anything more ask the realtor to reduce the commission sales rate.

Think carpet is expensive ask Ed above how much those stairs cost..

Tricky situation. You might have to just bite the bullet on this one, you really get what you pay for with curved stairs. They can be really amazing when done right, and very sloppy and ugly when done wrong.

Wood is for sure the way to go aesthetically. If you do with hardwoods I would recommend getting a stair builder for the install/switch. The difference between flooring people and stair builders is pretty notable... www.stairways.org is a good resource for stair builders all over.

good luck on your remodel!

Sounds like your realtor has aspirations to be a designer ! Gently remind them that you are employing her/him for their selling skills not to re design and spend your money in a home you are moving in from !!! Suggest they make those comments to a purchaser instead !!!

I agree with rich678. I buy and sell a lot of real-estate. People expect high end stair systems on high end homes.
Due to the configuration of the existing stair system you best return for you investment would be a good grade of carpet.

To the defence of the realtor, I did ask her to do an evaluation of what is worth spending money on (ie. return on investment) and what is not. Our house is very sellable due to location, lot, and other factors so this is not a "lipstick on a pig" staging but rather I want to know which projects I should proceed with and which can get taken off the list. And to be honest, she is right about too many wood finishes which has led me back to the carpet scenario. In hindsight we should have done the hardwood upstairs or at least the same as we did in my son's room.

I understand your problem, we had curved stairs that we carpeted when we built the house because my husband worried about wood being slippery, Against my better judgement I let him win, of course the carpet eventually needed replacing, so what too do. First the problem is what do you match the carpet too, as all other carpet has been removed and replaced with hardwood. Second, the labour cost to carpet is very high bcause of the curves and spindles. Third, my husband now knows that wood was the way to go in the first place. If I were you, even if you plan to sell, I would try to do it right; resale value would be better. Who you need to look for is a good finishing carpenter and get a price. I attached some pics of mine. Sorry they are not the best, you would think in the 10,000 pics I have on my computer, I could find better. Good luck to you

I am a realtor, so ill just give you my opinion. If your home is in a good location and has other attractive amenities, it shouldn't matter what flooring is on the stairway to a potential buyer. What you need to decide is: is it worth your time and money to carpet the stairway? A buyer could come in and say "oh carpeted stairway.. Not fun to clean." Or he could say, "I don't want to deal with covering it." I would advertise that the seller has offered to finish the stairway with carpet, or leave it unfinished and then get estimates on wood finish, carpeting, tile, etc. and let the buyer chose what they want. You could negotiate or say the seller will give x amount of dollars towards finishing the stairway of the buyers choice. That way if they want carpet, no big deal. If they don't, they won't be ripping up new carpet and wasting time and money on both sides.

All else fails and no buyers are interested, carpet it. Good luck!!!

JABDECO, your stairs are almost exactly like ours, right now to the dreaded bird cage spindles at the bottom (except we have 2). Makes you look at things completely differently once you have to reno something. A few months ago I had started a post here asking people what they noticed in other homes only once they decided to renovate something in their own home. For me at the time, it was the inside of the kitchen cabinets since ours have this weird skinny piece that runs down the centre of every cabinet making it a puzzle to get dishes behind it. Now I can add stair structure.

Jabdeco, what is the finish that you went with on your stairs? Is that oak overlay? And did you just reuse the same handrail?

it is finished in oak, he cut the cap off the old tread then put new oak treaks on top, adding oak veneer to the risers and the sides. He did an amazing job, we were very pleased. He numbered all the spindles when he took them down and then replaced them and the railing. As you can see in the picture there is a slight difference in colour but that has mostly corrected itself over time as new wood darkens.