Measure Once

I should have taken a photo of the rug running up our entry steps when we moved in.  The cheapest polyester "Oriental" pattern in a faded green, dirty as all get out too.  It had to go.

The green paint on the wood steps underneath was a bit rough so instead of re-painting I laid new runner.



















I've had a bit of a fondness for this charcoal to black industrial looking stuff - we had an entry mat of the same material in out last house - and I thought it would look good with the green.  $2.80 something a foot at the Depot.

You know the carpenter's saying, "Measure Twice, Cut Once"?  The point being that it's a lot easier to spend time getting measurements right than to fix it when you've got material cut to the wrong length - especially if it's cut too short?  Yeah.  I thought I was better than that.  Typical stairs are 7" rise, 11" run.  This is 3 stairs.  I was at Home Depot.  So, I figured math would guide me.  3x(7"+11") = 4'6", but I only wanted to wrap the last bit of the bottom step, and figured 4' would cut it, esp. since you typically get a few extra inches when buying by the foot.



















Well.  You can guess how well that worked out.  I kinda forgot about the way the runner would need to snake back under the tread.  Came up just a few inches short. 

 So - now I've got to go back to the store and buy a 5' piece of the same material.  And this project now costs nearly twice what it should have.  Yep.

Still, I learned a little screwing up the first time, next round I'll make sure it runs more evenly down the steps (this installation veers a bit to the left, see the top photo) and make sure I have enough.



















And, the basic process stands, and it was simple enough.  Pull up the old stuff, pull out remaining staples with some needle-nose pliers, give it all a good soap-and-water scrub, and then with the surface prepped, I laid out some double sided carpet tape.



















This stuff - Rhino Grip - because when you think of who you'd want to hold something down, isn't a Rhinoceros the first thing to come to mind.

And with that in place, I started tacking it down at the top, peeling back the paper on the tape, and using a staple gun at critical points - across the top, under the bullnose on the runner.  I scored each crease with the pair of pliers I still had laying around from pulling staples.  You could probably find a better tool for the job, but it worked. 
 

Until I got to the bottom.  Now I have to pull it all up and start over.  Don't repeat my mistakes at home.