Should I put vinyl plank flooring on my stairs?
Installing vinyl plank flooring is a labor-intensive project that often requires professional carpentry skills to properly bend and fit the treads. Beyond the difficult installation, the hard surface creates a severe slipping hazard for people wearing socks and can cause hip injuries in dogs. Because of these dangers, many homeowners abandon the idea and choose to install carpet instead.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Building a custom jig and using a heat gun to bend the planksDid this help you?
- 2Using water jugs as weights to hold the treads while the glue driesDid this help you?
- 3Hiring professional finish carpenters or flooring expertsDid this help you?
- 4Leaving the stairs carpetedDid this help you?
- 5Installing solid oak stair treads insteadDid this help you?
- 6Adding carpet runners or non-skid strips over the hard flooringDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“This has been a month or so in the works, but I finally have all the treads bent and installed.”source ↗
“Now I understand why people pay finish carpenters and flooring experts.”source ↗
“We are gathering bids to install LVP in our basement (about 350 sf) and these are the carpeted steps leading down. The bid came in with these included with the install, but I don't think putting LVP on 5 steps is the best decision.”source ↗
“One house i replaced carpet for matching and it 10xs the danger. (Slip and fall in socks)”source ↗
“I will not put it on stairs - we just got the quote to add carpet on them. I will only ever have carpet on stairs due to the slip & fall factor.”source ↗
“Anything but carpet is very bad for them, dogs for sure, causes hip issues on hard surface stairs including LVP”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 14How to finish luxury vinyl plank stair edges without bending them?
- 6Can you install LVP flooring room by room?
- 5Can you put heated floors under luxury vinyl tile?
- 2How to match different flooring heights at a stair landing
- 2Why am I so nervous about installing DIY flooring?
- 3New flooring hits the door and won't clear