Adding value to your home doesn’t always mean you need to make it bigger—make it better. Whether you’re looking to breathe some new life into your home, renovate a newly bought property, or sell your property at a higher value, your hallway, stairs, and landing are the perfect places to start.

Most UK properties feature carpeted staircases manufactured from low-quality softwood, softwood and MDF mixtures. This is a cheap and efficient solution to the costly problem of having stairs installed.

But as affordable as these carpeted softwood staircases are, they significantly lower the value of your property and don’t do you favours when it comes to interior design.

Installing a solid oak staircase will cost at least £20,000, so it’s almost out of the question unless you’re planning a lavish renovation project.

The solution to your hallway and landing woes is simple – instal hardwood flooring and overclad the stairs with solid wood.

You don’t need to forget your old stairs to have the look and feel of a brand-new staircase. Call +44 01162 165 107 or email us at info@martinallen.co.uk, and we’ll handle it.

How do we do it?

With several hallway and landing renovation projects under our belts, you can rest assured that you’ll be in good hands with Martin Allen.

Before we begin working on the project, our flooring experts will visit you and offer a free on-site consultation throughout the renovation process. Once we agree on the laying style (see our article on different styles of laying wooden flooring) and the finish, our flooring experts will get down to work. Need some more ideas? Check Pinterest.

The renovation begins by ripping up the carpet and the underlay from the staircase and the hallway. After the oak floor has been laid, our workers will measure your stairs—careful and detailed measurements of the tread, the nosing, and the rising of the stairs ensure a perfect fit for the end product.

The treads will then be ripped off and removed to be overclad, and new nosings will be put on. The new nosings of the stairs are usually made from the same oak flooring used in the hallway.

Everything is done off-site, and the process of over-cladding the existing treads with new ones and installing the nosings can be done in just a few hours.

Overcladding a standard staircase with new treads takes between four and five hours. The cladding process is tidied up with quick sanding and topped with a preferred finish. Clients can choose between traditional water-based floor lacquer or oils.

Here at Martin Allen, we use only the highest-quality finishes, which allow swift drying time. All lacquers and oils used take no longer than an hour per coat to dry, which means the standard four-coat finish can be done in less than four hours.

The curing process of the lacquer is a bit longer – the finish is entirely cured in 48 hours. Nevertheless, you can comfortably walk across the newly finished floor just an hour after applying the last coat without fear of damaging it.

How do we make everything fit perfectly?

Different-sized oak boards are used in every project to ensure a perfectly fit and uniform look for the staircase. For example, if the rise is 180mm high, we’d use 180mm wide boards that would be cut to fit the length of the stair’s tread.

Fostair’s wide treads and two 160mm boards will be glued together and sanded to ensure they form a solid surface. The tongue of the boards would be cut off, and a new nosing would be added to create the same look as the stairs had before. That would give us a solid, uniform construction that can get overclad in solid oak.

How do we make it safe?

At Marin Allen Flooring Fitters, we use only the highest-quality floor lacquers from trusted manufacturers, such as Junckers, Osmo, and Bona Kami. Water-based lacquers are the standard for oak floor finishing and don’t damage the floor overall. The flooring retains its original anti-slip properties even after five coats of lacquer.

Oil finishes, on the other hand, are an entirely different story. Anything more than two reserved coats of oil can make hardwood floors slippery.

If you’re worried about your children slipping on the stairs and the landing, especially, and don’t think standalone lacquer provides enough protection, there is a solution.

Antifriction and anti-slip products used for sports flooring can be applied to your hardwood floor to make it less slippery. Coating the stairs and landing with these products creates a slightly rougher surface to the touch. Looks-wise, it looks the same as if standard water-based lacquer were applied.

However, if you want to take extra precautions but don’t want them to affect the flooring’s surface flooring, always opt for a final coat with friction floss or a sports lacquer designed to provide a firm grip and prevent slipping.

Final cost: Fabulous Finances for Home Improvement

Budgeting can be the backbone or the bane of any home improvement project, but sometimes, it’s worth stretching those financial boundaries, especially regarding hallway renovations.

Having an existing staircase overclad with solid oak will set you back a few thousand pounds. The exact cost hinges on several factors:

• Dimensions of the stairs
• Size of the landing
• Preferred finish
• Additional design details

Investing in those few thousand pounds will reward you with a staircase that stands the test of time, exuding elegance and durability worth close to, as previously mentioned, £20,000.

Transforming your hallway and landing from carpet to real wood is a renovation and a revelation. It’s a remarkable way to increase your property’s value and introduce a high-quality, enduring addition to your home. Opt for a more contemporary, straight-cut look with trimmed treads for modern magnificence, or choose rounded nosings and a darker finish for timeless tradition.

Ready to add value to your home?

Please email us at office@martinallen.co.uk or call 01162 165 107 for an on-site. Martin Allen is a UK-wide wood flooring fitter and French polishing company that works on large and small home and commercial projects.