I finally got through a job with a crazy angled staircase

Everyone says to just cut the carpet on the flat before you wrap the stairs, but that method fell apart on a 1920s house I worked on last week. The stairs had a 45 degree turn halfway up with a weird winder step. I spent 4 hours trying to get the pattern to line up across the turn using the standard method before I gave up. I ended up having to cut the carpet in place on the actual stairs, which took almost the whole day for just that one section. Has anyone else run into a staircase that just would not work with the usual tricks?

2 comments

2 Comments

phoenixp306d ago

My uncle's 1920s bungalow has a staircase that defies all logic, with a turn so tight you have to shuffle sideways. He tried to recarpet it himself and ended up with a pile of scraps that looked like a bad puzzle. I told him some houses were just built by people who hated future owners on principle. That winder step situation sounds like a special kind of torture, honestly.

danieljenkins6d ago

Actually, those tight winder stairs were a clever space-saving trick in old houses. They just didn't have the square footage for a full landing. Still a pain to carpet though!