Vent: That one curved staircase that ate 4 hours of my life

I had a job last Thursday in a new condo building downtown. The homeowner wanted a runner on this spiral staircase with these tight turns. I figured 2 hours tops but it took me almost 4 and a half because every single piece had to be hand cut and fit three times. The backing kept bunching up on the curve no matter how I stretched it. Has anyone else dealt with those prefab curved staircases that seem impossible to tuck?

2 comments

2 Comments

gibson.seth17d ago

That heat gun and prayer approach sounds way too familiar. I spent a whole Saturday wrestling with a similar curved staircase in a renovated brownstone, and by the end I was using packing tape just to hold the backing in place while the adhesive set. Sometimes you just gotta laugh at how much fabric can fight back against a nice curve.

lisa_hill2317d ago

Honestly, "ate 4 hours of my life" is exactly what my buddy Tom said after he tried to do one of those. He was bragging about how quick it would be, then called me two days later venting about how he had to redo every single section of the runner like three times. He said the backing kept bubbling up on the turns and no amount of stretching would make it flat. By the end, he was just kneeling on the stairs with a heat gun and a prayer, trying to get it to cooperate. He told me he'd rather lay carpet in a room full of corners than ever touch a curved staircase again.