Many people enjoy the notion of having carpeting put in on their hardwood stairs in order to give this part of the house a cozy feel. More significantly, carpeted steps are safer and less inclined to causing a slip and fall down the stairs.

Although many people presume that putting in carpet on the stairwell is a complex undertaking, it is in truth rather rudimentary and you need have only elementary skills to do it yourself. And even though installing carpet on the stairs may not be as energizing as browsing for tropical wall hangings or wall decor art, doing so can save you lots of money over paying a professional installer.

The biggest aspect that must be stuck to when putting in carpeting is to take precise measurements. In fact, this is the beginning step. No matter what style you wish to use for this job, you want to begin with the right set of measurements to get you on the correct track. For the purposes of this article, we will talk about the "waterfall" method of carpeting installation. This method of installation is best suited for stairs that are uniformly constructed in both height and width. Let's look at how to take accurate measurements when utilizing this method of carpeting installation.

Take measurements of the width of the entire staircase

Your starting measurement will be of the breadth of the whole stairway. Staircases that are uniformly sized will only require that you measure the breadth at the stair's widest part. Place one end of your measuring tape at one end, and then extend the tape crosswise the breadth of the stair step to the other end. Write down the width and consider that you may add two to four inches of additional breadth as allowance.

Measuring the breadth of each riser

The area of the stairs that you step on when ascending or going down a stairwell is called the riser. For the waterfall technique, you essentially require one long piece of carpeting to encompass the whole set of stairs. Thus it is fundamental to measure how wide every riser is. Measure from the tip of the riser up to the joint (or where the riser stops and the fall begins). Jot down this measurement.

Measuring the "fall" of every step

The space between one riser and the next is the "fall". To measure the fall, begin at the end of one riser and extend your measuring tape to the beginning of the consecutive one. For steps that have "nosing", the fall ends below the jutted out section. Jot down this measurement.

Add the measurements of the riser and the fall

This is an effortless operation; just add the two measurements together and throw in a few inches for an allowance. This will permit you to neatly cover the edges and the corners with enough carpet during the installation. Once you have discovered the length of each step, including the leeway, you will just want to multiply this number by the number of stairs that you plan to cover. The end outcome is the total measure of carpet length that you will need for the chore.

Finally, take these measurements of entire length and width with you when browsing for carpet, and permit a pro to help you in picking out the carpet for the task.