Wood Stairs Too Slippery

Hardwood tile concrete and stone can all be very slippery surfaces.

Wood stairs too slippery.

Our reader alicia writes we recently redid the ratty carpet covered plywood stairs in our house as a lovely stained varnished solid wood. I agree that wood stairs are not as slippery as thought at least in my experience with pets and lots of kids in socks and we have pretty steep 1920 s stairs. Your only choices are to apply chemical solvents or roughen up surfaces with sand paper or plain steel wool. The best way to make your hardwood stairs less slippery is to add traction by installing carpet anti slip adhesive stair treads or applying a coat of anti slip floor finish to the surface of each stair.

Covering your stairs in carpeting can provide a softer and less noisy surface for you to walk up and down on. I did use shark grip when i painted a set of stairs and it is fabulous easy to use and totally non slippery not sure if it can be added to stain but you d need to sand the stairs first i am thinking but i don t believe that you. If this is the case coatings or other solutions might not be as effective. Include a pic of your problem and your question gets posted first.

One of the easiest ways to treat slippery wooden steps is to apply a nonslip coating spray. For some people carpeted stairs are more dangerous and slippery than hardwood stairs. Falling down stairs can lead to serious injury and slippery stairs pose a threat to anyone in your family. Wonderful to look at extremely painful to fall down which i did recently.

No major damage thankfully just a sprained ankle and the most spectacular note. Some hardwood stairs and rails become slippery through constant waxing or wood soaps. All three of these methods make the surface of each stair rougher add traction and significantly reduce the risk of slipping.