How To Measure The Stairs, Hallway and Landing

Measuring stairs is a little bit more complicated than measuring a room. Each section - the landing, the hallway, the straight stairs, and the curved stairs (called winders) - all need to be measured individually and written down. And, as luck would have it, our flooring experts have created a simple guide to help you measure your stairs! We’ve broken it down into 10 easy steps (pun intended) but if our instructions leave you in a bit of a muddle, there’s also a handy video where we show you how to measure your stairs.

Things you’ll need to measure stairs:

• Tape measure
• Pen or pencil (popped behind your ear to look extra professional)
• Piece of paper
• Ruler
• A helpful assistant - if you can find one!

The best way to measure your stairs is to start with the landing, then work down the stairs and finish with the hallway. When complete, your plan will include a landing sketch, individual stair measurements and a hallway sketch. Let’s get measuring!

1. Draw a floorplan of your landing and hallway then mark with an arrow where the stairs come down from the landing.

• Tapi Top Tip Double (and triple) check this information is included on the plan – it’s very important to ensure the carpet pile goes in the right direction.

2. Measure your landing as you would a normal room, remembering to go into any doorways. Use our guide on how to measure a room to help you.​

• Tapi Top Tip The part of the stair that you place your foot on is called a ‘tread’. The edge of the step is called the ‘nose’. The vertical part is called a ‘riser’.

3. The landing plan will need to include the top stair in its measurements. Start measuring from the doorway or wall opposite the top step then run the tape measure all the way over the nose of the top stair and down to the tread. This is important to do in one measurement as the carpet needs to run down the top stair in one piece without a join and then all the stairs will run in the same direction.

4. Next, make a list of how many straight stairs you have and how many are winders. The winders will need to be measured individually as they’ll all be different sizes. And we might sound like a broken record but it’s worth repeating: only record actual measurements on your plan!

5. When measuring straight stairs, measure from the back of the top riser (where it meets the previous step), over the nose (edge of the step) and down to the back of the next tread (where it meets the next step), then measure the width and jot both measurements down on your plan.

6. If you have a half landing, measure the width across the half landing (see orange line), then measure the length of the half landing including the drop over the step and down to the back of the next tread (see grey line).

7. When measuring winders/curved stairs, measure each one individually. Pile direction needs to go over the nose of the stair at a right angle so measure from the back of the stair tread, over the nose and then down the riser of the stair to the next tread, then record the size (see grey line). To find out the width, measure from the inner corner on the narrow edge to the furthest point on the widest edge (see orange line). Repeat for all your winding stairs and note them down.

8. Draw a floor plan of your hallway, then measure the hallway in exactly the same way you would measure a room, remembering to go into all doorways, alcoves and drop backs. Remember, take a few measurements from wall to wall as some walls are not parallel!
9. When all the measurements have been taken, draw an arrow on your floorplan showing where the stairs enter the hallway. This is very important for pile direction.
10. That’s a wrap! All that’s left to do is get in touch with us either by visiting a store or calling our order direct line on 03330 150501 and we’ll get you a free quote in the blink of an eye. Also, if you place an order, we’ll be happy to pop over and do a free measurement check to make sure all the measurements are 100% correct!

A handy video guide for measuring your stairs

For more help from our flooring experts, watch our how to measure stairs video.