The last job in the house

Of course there never is one, but perhaps an interesting diversion. Here's a starter.

Stair carpet. I think a house that is actively being DIYed will get through stair carpet about 10 times faster than one not being. Our last one has been down 4 years and it is knackered, and it wasn't the cheapest either. Fortunately it is only the stairs itself so should only be about 150 quid.

What and why?

Reply to
visionset
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We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember visionset saying something like:

Contract grade carpet - it's hard wearing, doesn't look too bad and is cheap. Once you've finished the work it will probably clean up fine and if not it's cheap enough to not be much of a loss.

Reply to
Grimly Curmudgeon

My stair carpet predates me buying the house (20 years ago). I'm not sure what it is, but a carpet fitter commented that it was very high quality and hardwearing when he was fitting a new living room carpet up against it, about 19 years ago, and he was right -- still looks like new. Unfortunately, it looks rather dated style now. I replastered the hall, stairs and landing last year, and decided not to protect it, but just to roll it up with all the split plaster at the end of the job. As it happens, I didn't spill any plaster on it, so it's still there. I will pull it up one day though...

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

They usually come back into fashion after 20 years or so. ;-) Unless some horrid pattern, of course.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Wool/nylon mix carpet, in fact probably a runner is better though they're expensive. I installed a wool/nylon carpet cut to 26" wide in several sections on my stairs, with he edges whipped to prevent fraying and present a good appearance. Hide the joins between sections in the gripper strip at the foot of the tread. I did it all myself, the main thing was to get the lay of the carpet facing down the stairs. I used Duralay rubber crumb underlay, not the most expensive, but it lasts >20 years judging from the old stuff I took up, which I only binned as it wasn't cut to shape very well. Finish with carpet rods if you can afford them. Plain carpet btw is prone to showing dirt and lint particles, a pindot pattern would be better at hiding lint and more interesting but patterned wool carpets get expensive. Patterned nylon carpets are very reasonable but don't stand up to wear quite as well as wool/mixed carpets. Runner carpets held by rods have the advantage of being adjustable to equalise wear on the bottom and top tread, but otherwise keep some spare carpet back to replace worn bits in the fuure.

Andy.

Reply to
Andy

Even the horrid patterns are coming back, although only in a feature wall post-ironic kitsch sort of way, of course.

It's costing me a small fortune on Ebay buying back all the things I threw out in the 70s and 80s :-(

Owain, trying to convince himself that life is complete without an orange TRIMphone and an Orinoco Womble.

Owain

Reply to
Owain

Gutters because no matter how well intended about maintenance you are they don't make their presence felt until it's too late. Some of that time doing other diy projects could have been better spent :-(

Mary

Reply to
Mary Fisher

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Owain saying something like:

Trust me, it is.

Reply to
Grimly Curmudgeon

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