Carpet to Timber Stairs in Balwyn Two-Storey Homes

If your Balwyn house has carpeted stairs, they can almost always be turned into timber without replacing the staircase. The carpet comes off, the treads are checked and fixed where loose, and each step is clad in timber cut to fit, with a nosing on the front edge. The decisions that matter are the nosing, whether the risers are timber or painted, and how the stairs line up with the floors at the top and bottom. The part that is easy to overlook is how you will manage in a two-storey house while the stairs are out of use.

Why so many Balwyn stairs are still carpeted

Many of Balwyn’s two-storey houses were built in waves: family homes from the 1970s through the 90s, then the rebuilds and townhouses of the last twenty years. Many of the older ones were built with carpet on the stairs and through the upstairs rooms, and many of the newer ones had carpet included in the builder’s package.

When owners later lay timber downstairs, the stair is often the part left unfinished. It usually sits right in the middle of the living area, next to the entry or off the family room, so a carpeted flight rising out of a new oak floor stands out. There is more on the housing mix on our Balwyn timber flooring page.

What is under stair carpet

You can often learn a lot before the measure. Lift the carpet at the edge of the bottom step, or look under the stairs if there is a cupboard.

• Timber treads and risers. This is the usual finding in older houses. They may be in decent condition, or scarred with decades of staple holes. Either way they are a good base for cladding once any movement is fixed.
• Particleboard or MDF treads. These are common in project homes, and fine to clad if the sheets are sound and dry, but a chipped or swollen nosing needs repair first.
• Concrete. Some homes have a concrete stair, especially where the ground floor is a slab and the stair was poured with it. Cladding works here too, with a different fixing method.

Every staple, tack and gripper strip comes out. Anything left behind stops the new tread sitting flat. A tread that creaks or moves gets fixed at this stage, because a squeak under carpet becomes a louder squeak under timber.

The three choices that decide the look

Nosing

The nosing is the front edge of each tread, and from the bottom of the stairs it is most of what you see. Square edges look crisp and modern. A rounded edge looks more traditional and is kinder to bare feet. A matched nosing piece keeps the colour close to the floor, and a metal trim adds grip with a more commercial look. Our stairs page compares the options in detail, so we won’t repeat them here. In short, we recommend looking at a real sample of the nosing next to your floorboard before you decide.

Risers

Timber risers give a solid, heavier look. Painted risers, usually white, give a lighter stair that suits pale floors and white stairwells. Painted risers also hide shoe scuffs better, which helps on a stair that children use all day.

Stringers and the open side

If the stair has a wall on both sides, the treads finish against the wall and the job is straightforward. If one side is open, with balusters or glass, the end of every tread shows, and the nosing has to return around the side. Balusters may need to be cut around or taken off and refitted. It adds time and should be on the quote as its own item.

Matching the stairs to the floor

The closest match is the same product used on the floor, or stair pieces made to match it. With engineered boards that matters more than people expect, because a cut edge can show the layers of the core. That is why purpose-made nosings are common with engineered floors.

If the floors downstairs are already down and in a board that is no longer available, a match gets harder. Sometimes the answer is a deliberate contrast: a darker stair against a lighter floor, or painted risers that take the eye away from a slight colour difference in the treads. It is better to decide that on purpose than to end up with a close but imperfect match.

If you haven’t chosen a floor yet, choose it with the stair in mind. The matte brushed finish on our engineered oak gives more grip underfoot than a glossier surface, which matters on stairs. A mid tone like Natural Oak also hides the dust that collects at the back of each tread better than a very dark board.

Why the floors and stairs are planned together

Every step in a flight should be the same height. Cladding adds the same thickness to every tread, so the middle of the flight stays even. The ends are where problems arise.

At the bottom, the first step gets taller by the thickness of the cladding, unless the new floor downstairs adds about the same. At the top, the last step gets shorter unless the new floor upstairs also rises. When carpet comes off upstairs and timber goes down, the floor height changes, and so does the top step. Your feet notice an odd step before your eyes do.

This is the main reason to do the stairs in the same job as the floors, or at least to plan the heights together if the stairs come later.

Living in a two-storey house while the stairs are done

Stair work is slower than floor work. Each tread is measured, cut and fitted on its own, winders at a turn are templated one by one, and adhesive needs time to set. For some of that time the stairs can’t be used, or can only be used carefully.

A little planning makes it much easier:

1. Ask the installer which days the stairs will be out of action, and whether they will be done top-down so the upstairs can be reached for part of the job.
2. Decide where people will sleep. If all the bedrooms are upstairs, a couple of nights elsewhere or a bed downstairs may be simplest.
3. Check which bathroom you will use. In many Balwyn homes the main bathroom is upstairs and the only downstairs one is a powder room.
4. Move what you need for those days downstairs the night before: clothes, chargers, school things.
5. Keep pets away from the stairs and the adhesive until the installer says they are fine.

When the job includes the upstairs rooms as well, it helps to think of the house in stages. One customer had the carpet upstairs replaced with timber in three days. That gives a sense of how long a focused job can take, but every stair and every house is different, so please ask for the timing on your own quote.

What the stair part of a quote should show

Stairs are quoted separately from the flat floor area. A clear stair line lets you compare quotes properly. Check that it covers:

• the number of treads, risers and landings
• winders or turning steps, counted separately
• the nosing type
• open sides and any work around balusters
• carpet removal and repairs to loose treads
• painting of risers or stringers, if that is being left to you or a painter

If one quote is much lower than another, it is worth checking whether any of those lines are missing. For the flooring side of a two-storey carpet-to-timber job, our guide to replacing carpet with timber covers removal, door trimming and what turns up under the carpet.

Next step: count the steps and book a measure

Before you call, count the treads, note whether the stair turns and whether either side is open, and lift the carpet at the bottom step if you can. Then book a free measure and quote. We measure each step in person, check what is under the carpet, bring nosing samples and quote the stairs as their own line next to the floors. You can also see stair nosings next to the floorboards at the showroom, or call us on 1300 690 160.