Carpet vs hardwood floors: It’s a popular topic in the flooring industry that’s subject to much debate and opinion. And when the subject is stairs, the debate is no different. There’s not right or wrong. For some it’s a matter of style. For some it’s maintenance, while for others it’s cost; and with others it might be safety. Still, there’s always thought about added value to ones home.

Style: What is the overall floor plan of your house? Is it a mix of carpet and hardwood? Or is it mostly carpeting and you would like to add hardwood stairs? Not only will those hardwood stairs add a whole new look to your home, but it just might inspire you to continue with more new interior additions such as adding hardwood to your entry so it matches and compliments your stairs.

Comparing Costs: If your current stairs carpet needs replacing, pulling the old carpet and installing new will definitely cost less than the overall expense of hardwood floor stairs.

Comparing Maintenance Costs:White oak hardwood stairs.                                                                           White Oak Flooring 

 

Carpeted stairs
Carpeted Stairs

In short, hardwood flooring is much simpler to clean and maintain compared to carpeting. Hardwood floors can be swept or damp-mopped to clean dust, spills, surface stains, and other debris. We suggest using a quality mop with warm water with a touch of a mild dish soap, Ivory, Dawn, Ivory or Palmolive

It’s a hard task to maintain the like-new shape of carpet because of dust, dirt, and allergens become trapped within the fibers over time. For this reason, it’s important that carpet is vacuumed regularly to help free these particles. However, some stains can be far more taxing to remove, often times requiring deep shampoo cleaning or special chemicals and treatments.

It might best to a have a professional clean them yearly. While certain types of pretreated and synthetic fiber carpets are designed to resist stains, hardwood flooring is arguably easier to maintain in the long run.

To Be Continued

Choosing Your Home Entryway Stairs: Hardwood Flooring or Carpet – Part 1