How to Make Your Slippery Stairs Safer | Lifehacker

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It occurred a couple of days after we’d moved into our charming and very outdated home: I fell down the steps. Due to the age of the home, the steps are very steep, and had been worn down over time so the treads had been clean as glass and dipped barely within the middle from erosion. I used to be in a rush and never sporting sneakers, and the remaining is painful historical past. Let’s face it: Slippery stairs are a problem (one thing the Japanese know very properly).

I wasn’t badly harm (although I’m fairly certain my cats had been all laughing at me), however that simply makes me fortunate: More than 1,000,000 folks find yourself on the emergency room with a stair-related harm yearly. If you’ve had a couple of shut calls by yourself stairs (or slid down them from one flooring to the following such as you’re competing for the Slippery Stairs championship), you’ll want to do one thing about them, pronto.

Wear slippers

If you don’t have any pets and are completely dedicated to not doing a mission, you might spend money on a pair of anti-slip slippers or home sneakers (or grippy socks). Sure, you’ll have to recollect to place them on each day, and also you’ll most likely should spend money on a couple of additional pairs for visitors, however sporting home sneakers with grippy soles will at the very least spare you from a shock toboggan experience from the second flooring to the primary. Of course, you might additionally simply depart your sneakers on whenever you come dwelling, however you’re a civilized individual and never an animal, proper?

Add carpet

Adding a runner to your stairs is a superb solution to take away all that slipperiness. This is a mission that most individuals can handle themselves, though it should take some effort and time. This actually comes all the way down to your emotions in direction of carpet typically—should you love the hardwood in your stairs, masking it with carpet will really feel like committing against the law, but when your first thought is how heat and protected these stair treads will really feel underneath your naked toes, this is perhaps the suitable answer for you.

Tread tape

An affordable and comparatively straightforward answer is to use some traction or security tape to your treads. You have a number of selections right here, starting from sturdy industrial strips to extra refined tapes designed to be as invisible as doable. The huge profit to utilizing tape is how straightforward it’s: You simply measure, minimize, and apply. You ought to take a look at it in an not noticeable space in your stairs first, although, to make sure that should you determine to take away it sooner or later, it gained’t take your treads’ end together with it.

Anti-slip sprays and coatings

If you’re not terribly involved in regards to the floor or end of your stairs, the simplest solution to make them much less slippery is to make use of an anti-slip spray, a gritty floor coating that adheres to the treads. This might be utilized in minutes however it could take a couple of hours to dry, which is a draw back if you end up trapped on one flooring of the house. Another draw back entails remorse: If you ever change your thoughts about it, getting it off is perhaps a problem. Another draw back to those sprays is that they have a tendency to put on off the treads over time and will have to be re-applied each few years, relying on what number of toes are on them every day. But in order for you an answer that requires zero instruments, this can work.