Smart and safe – tips for your wood flooring staircase

Stairs have to be safe so there are definitely some musts when thinking about how you want your stairway to look but this doesn’t mean they all have to look the same.

Safety first

Same height for each step up

As well as having a banister a key safety point for the staircase itself is that the rise of each step should be the same all the way up the staircase, and of course this will make it look much smarter too. Risers are usually between 190mm and 220mm depending on your house.

One other general rule of thumb is that the stair tread and the landing should be the same material as a continuation for the eye.

And now the looks

There are safety rules but it doesn’t mean every staircase has to look the same

There are many ways to do your staircases but here are four suggestions that you could recreate using your choice of wood flooring.

Option 1:

You might decide to have the tread (the bit where your foot goes) and the riser (the bit that goes up) in the same wood the entire way up the staircase.

In the pictures we showcase an engineered oak tread coupled with a matching engineered oak riser.

Option 2:

An alternative to having the same wood for tread and riser would be to create an MDF riser and paint it in a colour of your choice. This is also an important safety feature because having the 2 different colours makes it easier to see where one step and and another begins.

In our example pictures at the top of the article you can see Engineered Smoked Oak treads with white MDF risers.

Option 3:

It’s not just the staircase itself which can vary, you can also change the look of your bottom step by creating a Bullnose. This gives a smart rounded look to the bottom of your stairs and can be seen in Oak in our example here to the left.

Option 4:

Stairs don’t just go up and down so for those staircases which wind around to meet the landing the wood can be cut to shape. The example here on a staircase with a Winder and Kite at the top is made from engineered oak.

We hope this gives you a bit of food for thought. There are a range of options to consider when choosing a staircase which can all be done in a range of woods and created with aesthetics and safety in mind.

So for your wood flooring needs come and see us at the Cambridge store.

And while this article has focussed on wood stairs, there are alternatives too. Have a look at this article on the best carpet for stairs and on this case study about luxury vinyl tile on stairs if you still need more ideas to see what would work best for you.