How to Lay a Runner on Stairs

Measure the width of the carpet runner with a measuring tape.

Measure a tackless strip to the carpet runner width measurement, less 2 inches, and mark it with a pencil. Cut the strip at the mark with metal snips. Repeat until you have two strips for each step plus one piece of scrap.

Lay the scrap of tackless strip on the bottom stair tread with a long edge butted against the riser. This scrap is a spacer that you will use to align each piece of tackless strip. Place one tackless strip on the stair tread, butted against the front edge of the scrap, with its sharp points angled toward the riser. Center the strip between the balusters and the wall. Hammer carpet tacks, spaced 4 inches apart, through the strip and into the stair tread, then remove the spacer.

Place the scrap flat across the bottom of the riser that is behind the first tackless strip. Butt another tackless strip against the upper edge of the spacer with the points facing down toward the tread. Center it and fasten the strip to the riser with carpet tacks. Remove the spacer. Continue working up the staircase in this manner until you have one tackless strip across the back of each stair tread and another across the bottom of each riser.

Measure a stair tread from the riser to the nose. Measure and mark a piece of carpet pad that is the same width as the tackless strips and as long as the depth of the stair tread plus 4 inches. Cut the pad with a utility knife or utility scissors.

Abut a longer edge of the pad against the front edge of a tackless strip across the back of a stair tread. Do not place the pad on the strip. Staple the back edge of the pad to the tread with one staple at each end. Add more staples across the edge, spaced approximately 3 inches apart.

Tug the pad toward you and around the nose. Staple the pad under the nose as far back against the riser as the stapler will fit. Space the staples approximately 3 inches apart. There should be a few inches of excess pad hanging down past the staples. Don’t trim it off. Repeat on each stair tread.

Align and center the top edge of the stair runner with the upper edge of the riser at the top of the stairs. Insert carpet tacks across the top edge of the carpet and into the riser with a tack hammer, spacing the tacks 3 inches apart.

Tug the carpet down the face of the riser, over the pair of tackless strips in the corner and onto the tread below. Push the carpet into the corner between the stair tread and the riser until the carpet backing catches on the prongs of the strips.

Press the leading edge of a wide, blunt chisel into the corner. Tap the end of the chisel lightly with a mallet, forcing the carpet into the corner and securing it to the tackless strips.

Pull the loose carpeting toward you. For a fitted stair runner, smooth the carpet around the nose and staple or tack it underneath. Pull the carpet down the riser to the next set of tackless strips in the corner, tap into the corner with the chisel and repeat the process down the staircase to the bottom. For a loose or waterfall installation, do not tack the carpeting under the nose. Instead, tug the carpeting over the nose and straight down to the next pair of tackless strips in the corner. Use the chisel to secure it into the corner, and continue down the staircase to the bottom.

Press the end of the carpet against the bottom stair riser. Trim off most of the excess carpet at the floor with utility scissors or a utility knife. Push the carpet into the corner between the riser and the floor. Cut the end of the carpet straight across the bottom edge of the riser against the floor with a utility knife.

Pull the bottom edge of the carpet back out of the corner. Apply carpet fray preventive liquid across the cut edge and let it dry. Press the carpet back into position. Insert carpet tacks across the edge and into the bottom of the riser with a tack hammer.