Video: How to Install Carpet on Stairs: Part 1

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When installing carpet on steps or stairs in your house, it's important to lay each individual step to prevent the carpet from coming up later on. Learn easy tips on how to install carpet in your house in this free online home improvement video.

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nonebrad2 Dec 22, 2008
I am a pharmacist and had never installed carpet before. I bought a house in order to flip it and needed to carpet a stairway. The estimates I recieved ranged between 410-490. Instead I bought the carpet I needed for 104.00 bucks and followed the instructions in this video. It came out pretty good for my first time to install carpet and only took an hour to do. I would recommend this procedure to anyone, installing carpet is a snap.
nonebrad2 Dec 22, 2008
I am a pharmacist and had never installed carpet before. I bought a house in order to flip it and needed to carpet a stairway. The estimates I recieved ranged between 410-490. Instead I bought the carpet I needed for 104.00 bucks and followed the instructions in this video. It came out pretty good for my first time to install carpet and only took an hour to do. I would recommend this procedure to anyone, installing carpet is a snap.
floored2 Nov 28, 2008
This is the stuff I have to deal with everyday. I now work in retail flooring and I have customers continually telling me how to install the flooring products they are about to purchase. Listen I have been installing flooring with my father since the age of 6 years old. I'm not about to argue with a customer and risk losing the sale .....But listening to a guy like this is only going to create more business for me. This is a disaster waiting to happen. Lets be honest carpet installation is not for the DIY. It can be done....but talk to a professional, a guy that has done it at least 50 times before. Not the guy at home depot or this guy. Stairs are one of the most difficult things to do with carpet. I've done hundreds of sets and no two sets are a like. It takes time and patience. They have to be installed right ..for safety and for the mere fact that if they aren't ..the product is going to wear out much quicker. Proper stretch is something most so called pros have a hard time executing. The internet is a great place for info....the question is whether or not we are getting the right info for the job. 18 000 people found this video useful information. If only 2% of the people attempt this ...there are 360 botched jobs to be fixed. Can someone please make a proper video.
bluedream Sep 24, 2008
Ok.... Well I've been laying carpet since I was 16, so that is 10 years now, I am not the best carpet layer in the world - but I haven't met the best yet. My professional opinion of this video is that it WILL result in the carpet being 'installed' to the stair case but it is purely D.I.Y It will definitely NOT result in a professional looking finish. The author's comments about the carpet coming loose after a year if you do it in one piece are probably correct because of the lack of proper stretching that he uses. Following his instructions 'may' result in an 'ok' looking finish - it is just as likely to result in an extremely dangerous tripping hazard on a set of stairs. If I installed carpet like this and someone fell down the stairs and hurt themselves I know I would be liable. So if you need a 'quick' fix, perhaps to satisfy a landlord or for home selling purposes then MAYBE follow these instructions, but you are running the inherent risk of opening yourself up to liability if anyone falls.
bluedream Sep 24, 2008
Ok.... Well I've been laying carpet since I was 16, so that is 10 years now, I am not the best carpet layer in the world - but I haven't met the best yet. My professional opinion of this video is that it WILL result in the carpet being 'installed' to the stair case but it is purely D.I.Y It will definitely NOT result in a professional looking finish. The author's comments about the carpet coming loose after a year if you do it in one piece are probably correct because of the lack of proper stretching that he uses. Following his instructions 'may' result in an 'ok' looking finish - it is just as likely to result in an extremely dangerous tripping hazard on a set of stairs. If I installed carpet like this and someone fell down the stairs and hurt themselves I know I would be liable. So if you need a 'quick' fix, perhaps to satisfy a landlord or for home selling purposes then MAYBE follow these instructions, but you are running the inherent risk of opening yourself up to liability if anyone falls.

Video Transcript

I’m Lee and I’m going to show you how to install carpet on steps. And the first thing that you want to know is that you have lay each individual step itself, and if you lay one wrong piece, then it’s going to come undone in a year, more or less.
What you want to do first is you want to measure the area just from the base all the way out to the end and then from the bottom base all the way up to the top of the padding. You lay it out on the back of the piece of carpet, and cut it like I’ve done on this piece right here. And you’re ready to install it more or less. And you want to make sure to short it by about a quarter of an inch- about a fourth of an inch, more or less. And you want to short the part that goes over the step because of the padding, and you will pull that in when you go around the padding. And you take your piece of carpet like this and lay it over to make sure that it fits; should be a little bit big, because you tuck it behind the piece of carpet on the lower step.

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How to Install Carpet on Stairs: Part 1

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