We’ve been juggling multiple projects lately — Clara’s room, the master bath, the kitchen and the veranda — so it’s hard to believe it’s been about six weeks since we last wrote about the staircase. Many of you asked about the new stair runner we ordered; it was back-ordered and arrived late, but it’s finally here. The only thing standing between us and installing it was the last of the old carpet.
After we removed the carpet in the master bath, the stairs were the house’s last carpeted spot. We’d pulled the carpet from the top step months ago to install hardwood, but we’d been avoiding finishing the job — partly because ripping up carpet is tedious, and partly because a small dog and a small human needed safe footing on the stairs. Still, the new runner sat in its packaging, patient and judgmental, so we finally tackled the mess for the puppies’ sake.
The work wasn’t difficult, just monotonous and precise. Our toolkit was simple: a crowbar for pulling up carpet, a flathead screwdriver for lifting staples, pliers for extracting stubborn fasteners — basically a family of pry tools, each doing its part.
Once the crowbar freed a corner or two, the carpet came up by hand — with gloves, since it was full of staples and other sharp bits. Under the carpet was the real challenge: foam padding that tore easily, and hundreds of staples that did not want to leave.
There were a lot of staples. To make that obvious, I marked the staples and tack-strip nails with yellow dots in a photo — 49 on that one step. Multiply that by 12 steps and you’re looking at nearly 600 fasteners we pried out. Most came up easily with a screwdriver to lever them out, and then pliers to remove the loose end. A few were stubborn, broke off, or required extra swearing and effort.
We removed metal fasteners from each step and moved on to the next, slowly making progress until the staircase was completely bare. The whole project took place over three days in small stretches — about seven hours total — with Sherry and I tag-teaming the job. Burger, our dog, made frequent cameo appearances: stretching, inspecting and occasionally licking noses, clearly curious and wanting to be near us while we worked.
At the end of the work, the house was officially carpet-free. One of Sherry’s before-baby goals is checked off, and she’s thrilled — though don’t mention staple removal, or she’ll grumble. The exposed wood is in good condition overall: not heavily scratched, which was a relief given all the sharp tools involved. A few spots show noticeable staple holes, particularly on a couple of lower steps where it looks like a different fastening method may have been used.
Our plan is to paint the risers white while leaving the treads their natural wood color so they match the upstairs flooring. Painting the risers will help hide many of the small holes; we’ll use wood filler where needed before painting. The new runner will cover most tread holes, and we’ll treat the treads the same way we refreshed our downstairs floors to minimize visible imperfections. We don’t intend to change the tread color since it transitions into the upstairs flooring we already installed.
Before the runner goes down, we also painted the walls and ceiling along the stairwell to avoid dripping on the new runner later. That required working from a ladder with a long roller pole at heights approaching 16 feet, so it was a bit trickier than we expected. I used the tape-the-brush-to-the-pole trick to reach upper corners — a little awkward but effective. That painting added about three more hours of work, and we used the same Edgecomb Gray color we painted the foyer in so the transition up the stairs would feel cohesive. We only painted high enough to prevent any drips on the runner; finishing the upstairs hallway will require another gallon of paint.
Assuming we can get the risers painted and dry, we hope to reveal the full runner early next week. In the meantime, both Clara and Burger have managed the carpet-less stairs just fine — they aren’t as slippery as we feared, possibly because the wood had been lightly worn under the old carpet. Still, we’re eager to install the runner for safety, comfort and a finished look.
Anyone else tackling old carpet removal and painstakingly plucking out staples by hand? If so, you know the feeling — those tiny metal fasteners make you question human inventiveness sometimes.