Stair treads buying guide
Updated: October 2026
A stair treads buying guide starts with a tape measure, not with a star rating. You are standing on an indoor flight in a UK house, the wood or paint is slippery, and the amazon.co.uk packs all claim to fit most stairs at about 20 by 76 cm. By the end of this page you should know which number to write down for the going, which width in this set matches your stair, and which care line to trust before you open the [stair mats comparison](/hub/flooring/stair-mats). Prices below are the shelf figures from those listings. A qualifying purchase can earn us a commission at no extra cost to you. Products Compared did not run a laboratory slip test.
A stair treads buying guide starts with a tape measure, not with a star rating.
A stair treads buying guide starts with a tape measure, not with a star rating. You are standing on an indoor flight in a UK house, the wood or paint is slippery, and the amazon.co.uk packs all claim to fit most stairs at about 20 by 76 cm. By the end of this page you should know which number to write down for the going, which width in this set matches your stair, and which care line to trust before you open the stair mats comparison. Prices below are the shelf figures from those listings. A qualifying purchase can earn us a commission at no extra cost to you. Products Compared did not run a laboratory slip test.
Our top picks
| Badge | Product | Size | Backing | Care | Note | Price | Offer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best overall |  Spurtar Spurtar clear stair treads, 15 pack | 15.2 × 61 cm | Peel film on PEVA | Wipe clean | 8.5 | about £22.99 | View offer |
| Best value |  Dayacoco Dayacoco grey stair treads, 15 pack | 20.3 × 76.1 cm | TPE | Wash, then shade dry | 7.6 | about £19.99 | View offer |
 MBIGM MBIGM camel stair treads, 15 pack | 20.3 × 76.2 cm | TPU, not glue | Vacuum or machine wash | 9.2 | about £49.99 | View offer |
On this page
Measure the going and the width
Measure the going from nosing to nosing, then the narrowest clear width, and include any winder. Approved Document K sets a private stair going at 220 mm to 300 mm, a rise at 150 mm to 220 mm, and a maximum pitch of 42 degrees. Those figures describe the stair itself. They are not a size printed on a pad. Most carpet pieces in this set are about 200 mm deep, so a legal going still shows a strip of timber in front of or behind the pad. If you expected the rectangle to hide the whole step, a 20 cm depth will disappoint you on a 250 mm going.
Width is the measurement that rejects a pack. Write down the narrowest step in centimetres before you compare 60 cm, 65 cm, 67 cm, 71 cm, and 76 cm. A 76 cm pad that overhangs a 70 cm stair has to be cut, and only some listings say scissors are allowed. A 60 cm pad on an 80 cm stair leaves bare wood at both ends, which is where a foot still slips. Spurtar’s clear strip is a separate geometry: the bullets say 6 by 24 inches, while the dimensions line says 152.4 by 38.1 by 0.69 cm. Measure the stair, then check which line you are ordering against.
Pack count and the widths in this set
Count the steps you will cover, including a landing only if you mean to pad it. Fifteen pieces is the usual pack, and one note on a similar 15-pack said that count matched a single flight. That is one staircase, not a rule for a house with winders. Emmahome is 13 pieces at 22 by 67 cm. Suimlmta is 14 pieces at 20 by 76 cm. The other carpet packs here are 15. If your flight has 16 treads, a 15-pack leaves the bottom or the top bare unless you buy a second pack, and the dye lot may not match.
The unbranded pack is 60 by 20 cm. YISUN is 65 by 20.3 cm. Emmahome stops at 67 cm. COSY HOMEER is 71 by 23 cm, slightly deeper than the 20 cm norm and narrower than 76 cm. Dayacoco is 20.3 by 76.1 cm, Fixmend is 20.3 by 76 cm, and MBIGM prints 8 by 30 inches. Shelf prices run from about £19.99 to about £56.99. A second pack doubles that spend. JIABOOK’s weight field says 1 g, and the unbranded material line says glass. Treat both as listing errors. Cut with scissors only when that listing says you can. Homcomodar and several peel-film packs do. COSY HOMEER and Dayacoco tell you to measure first.
Backing and the surface
Match the back to the surface you actually have, because the film only bonds to what it touches. Peel-film TPE, TPR, or TPU is sold for clean, dry, sealed indoor wood, tile, or stone. Dayacoco uses TPE and says no tape or glue. Suimlmta says TPR. MBIGM’s TPU line says the bottom is not glue and not a permanent adhesive, and reviewers still describe it as tacky rather than sticky. YISUN uses TPU and tells you the care line is spot clean only. Fixmend limits the pad to clean, smooth, hard indoor stairs such as marble or hardwood.
Homcomodar is the exception you should not peel. It is a polypropylene face on loose rubber, with no film and no glue, at about £50.99. Reviewers who laid it on carpet said it moved. Bare or unpainted boards are where peel-film tack fails: a JIABOOK reviewer said the included spare tape did not hold on bare floorboards. Fresh paint, polish, and a damp stair are the same class of mistake. The fitting sequence is on how to fit stair treads. If the finish is too valuable to test, do not use the first stair as the experiment.
Wash claims that do not match
Read the care line after the bullets, because the two often disagree. Several packs say you can machine-wash the tread and put it back. YISUN’s care line says spot clean only, while the bullets say vacuum, broom, or rag, and machine wash is not stated. Dayacoco says machine wash, then air dry in the shade, not in a tumble dryer and not in direct sun. Emmahome says machine wash, and one UK review says the yarn join failed after a wash. COSY HOMEER claims the TPE back survives more than 30 washes without losing its anti-slip property. That sentence is a claim on the listing, not a result from a test in this file.
Wash one spare piece first if the pack gives you a spare, and stop if the face lifts or the tack dies. A bullet that says washable does not prove the bond survives a 40 degree cycle. Fixmend’s spec line says the tread is not stain resistant and not water resistant. If you need a wipe-clean strip rather than a textile, that is a different product, covered on carpet or clear stair treads.
What this guide will not choose
This page does not name a winner. Stars in the set sit between 3.8 and 4.6, and a 4.6 from 75 reviews is not the same evidence as a 4.5 from 3,173. The best stair treads page applies these measurements to the packs. None of the listings publishes a pendulum test value, and none of them rebuilds the rise, the going, or the handrail. Approved Document K still governs those parts of the stair. If the goods arrive faulty, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 gives you a short-term right to reject within 30 days.
Before you open the main table, write four lines: going in millimetres, narrowest width, number of steps, and whether the surface is sealed wood, tile, carpet, or bare board. Then note whether you will wash the pad or only vacuum it. That list is the whole job of a stair treads buying guide.
Common questions
What size stair tread do I need for a UK stair?
Measure the going from nosing to nosing and the narrowest width, including winders. A private going under Approved Document K is 220 mm to 300 mm. Most carpet pads here are about 200 mm deep and between 60 cm and 76 cm wide. Order the width that fits the narrowest step, and treat 20 by 76 cm as a common listing size rather than a guarantee.
Does a 20 cm deep pad cover the whole step?
No. A 200 mm pad is shorter than the 220 mm to 300 mm going allowed on a private stair, so a band of the finish stays visible. That can be what you want on oak. It is a problem if you expected the textile to cover every place a foot lands. Clear strips cover even less of the going.
Is 15 pieces enough?
Only if you counted 15 steps you intend to cover. Emmahome has 13 pieces and Suimlmta has 14. A longer flight needs a second pack, and the colour may not match. A landing is extra if you pad it. Fifteen pieces matched one flight in a listing aside, which is not a survey of UK houses.
Should I buy self-adhesive or a rubber back?
Buy peel-film TPE, TPR, or TPU for a clean, dry, sealed hard stair. Buy Homcomodar’s loose rubber only when you want no adhesive and the stair is straight, hard, and free of carpet. Carpet is where that rubber moved in reviews. Bare boards are where peel-film failed even with spare tape.
Can I machine-wash every pack that says washable?
No. YISUN’s care line says spot clean only. Dayacoco says shade-dry, not a dryer or direct sun. Emmahome has a review of the yarn failing in the wash. A bullet is not a care label. Wash one piece only when the care line agrees, and stop if the face or the tack fails.
What if the pad is faulty when it arrives?
The Consumer Rights Act 2015 lets you reject faulty goods within 30 days. A liner that will not peel, or a face that has already split from the back, is a return rather than a reason to scrape the varnish. After 30 days the route is repair or replacement. Keep the unused pieces in the pack until you have tested one stair.
Related pages
Sources
Public UK sources and amazon.co.uk listings, checked on 19 October 2026. Shelf prices and star lines are the figures in the display file. A higher score is not a pendulum test result for these pads.
- Approved Document K (retrieved 19 October 2026)
- Requirement K1 (retrieved 19 October 2026)
- HSE stairways (retrieved 19 October 2026)
- HSE care stairs (retrieved 19 October 2026)
- UK Slip Resistance Group nosings (retrieved 19 October 2026)
- RoSPA Safer Stairs (retrieved 19 October 2026)
- NHS Falls (retrieved 19 October 2026)
- Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 20 (retrieved 19 October 2026)