Stairway Safety 101
Whether you share a home with an elderly person, children, pets or the accident-prone, keeping your stairway safe is a simple way to reduce accidents and injuries that could be serious. These simple tips and stairway safety enhancing product suggestions will help improve your stairway's safety so you don't have to worry about preventable mishaps. By clearing the way, ensuring proper lighting, reducing slippery surfaces, adding traction and providing a more confident surface area for the surest footing on stairways, your home's interior and exterior stairways will remain safe for the whole family.
Alarming Statistics Justify Action
Your home's stairs may seem unassuming, but stair-related accident statistics over the last two decades paint a starkly different picture. According to the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, nearly 1 million children under the age of 5 were sent to the emergency room between 1999 and 2008 - and that number doesn't account for falls where the child wasn't hospitalized.
Older data suggests that the numbers are equally alarming for adults - especially the elderly. Data from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission estimated that 1 million stair-related accidents occurred in 1990.
Why Improve Stairway Safety?
Stairway slips and falls are significantly more dangerous than falls on flat ground, and they're even more common. When you make an investment in safer stairs, you're helping your family and pets avoid traumatic injuries like broken bones and bruises. If you're a business-owner, you'll always want to make sure your stairs are as safe as they possibly can be to avoid putting employees and customers in harm's way and to reduce your business's liability. Prevention is always the best way to avoid accidents. Dean Flooring Company has stair safety solutions for indoor and outdoor use, including top-quality carpet stair treads designed to add traction and security to slippery hardwood or tile flooring.
Clear the Path
The simplest thing you can do to avoid stairway slips and falls is to ensure an uninhibited path. That not only means avoiding placing objects on stairs - including lamps, ground lighting, cords, wires and plants - but also means choosing stair floor coverings that do not include bulky staples, tapes and bulges. Always select Dean Flooring Company tape-free DIY stair treads that provide a streamlined, safe surface area that won't get caught underfoot. Never cover stairs with ill-fitting rugs or area rugs cut or retrofitted to fit stairs. Instead, choose custom-ordered or pre-cut stair treads designed exactly for the size of your stairway.
Choose Flooring with Traction
You always want to make sure that your stairway surface is slip-free either by selecting high-traction flooring or by installing non-slip carpet stair treads. The most affordable way to add traction to stairs for pets and people is to choose DIY non-skid carpet stair treads by Dean Flooring Company. These innovative stair coverings provide serious traction whether you're wearing shoes or going barefoot and add cushion and grip to help even the most unsure travelers navigate the staircase with confidence. Many of our stair treads are also constructed using a unique non-slid foam or rubber backing designed to stay put - no slipping, sliding or wiggling underfoot!
Create a Confident Space
Home and business-owners always want to make sure their stairways are safe for everyone, including children and the elderly. Improve stairway safety simply and affordably by installing high-quality, highly secured handrails that are safely mounted to a wall or an otherwise secured structure. It's also important to make sure that guests have ample lighting for ascending and descending the stairway. (But remember to never place floor lamps on stairs or in the path on the landing, as this obscures the path and requires dangerous cords.) Be sure to select non-slip stairway coverings that aren't too busy or distracting and remember to always keep outdoor stairways completely free of ice, snow and rain during inclement weather.
Buy 'Tape-Free' Treads
Some manufacturers claim to make safe stair treads that won't get in the way but require bulky staples and unreliable adhesives to install. Dean Flooring Company is an innovator when it comes to DIY stair treads, and we offer a proprietary tape-free floor tread system made 100 percent in the U.S. These safety-enhancing stair treads are easy to install, remove and re-install using slim double-sided mesh tape that keeps each piece in place until you're ready to refresh the stairway with a new set. Dean Flooring Company supplies safe carpet stair treads requiring no tape or adhesives in hundreds of unique colors, styles and sizes for your home.
Quick Tips for Stairway Safety
- Install non-skid carpet stair treads to add traction and grip underfoot
- Install a reliable railing that's dead-bolted into a wall or a reinforced structure
- Never place anything on the stairs, including lamps and other floor-level lighting mechanisms
- Keep stairways well-lit at all times using wall sconces or ceiling fixtures
- Quickly clean up spills or place a "slippery" sign near stairs that have just been cleaned
- Do not run electrical wires or cables up stairways
- Cover the bottom step with a high-visibility color stair tread to help identify the final stair in the dark
- Always buy properly sized stair treads and floor coverings to avoid tangling, moving or slipping while in use
- Use a landing mat at the foot of your stairs to protect against slips as you exit your staircase
