Comments on: Help for slippery steps

Question: Help for slippery steps

palmcorder_yajna — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 13:21:56 -0800

Help us make these wet, slippery, wooden steps safer!

We're spending the holidays with some friends who have extremely slippery steps. The steps are made of treated wood, and when they get damp, they're basically frictionless. What can we do to make them safer, both in the short term and in the long term? This potential project is complicated by the weather, which is currently misty to rainy, and it will probably be that way for some time.

Note: Our pals have authorized us to look into the problem, and we'll definitely talk to them again before we do anything. We're not going to make any surprise improvements to their property!

By: dottiechang

dottiechang — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 13:24:34 -0800

How about these rubber stair treads?

By: erst

erst — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 13:25:03 -0800

Would slip-resistant strips work?

By: Kadin2048

Kadin2048 — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 13:26:31 -0800

The best solution would probably be to repaint them with some sort of gritty paint, but that will need to wait for good weather. In the short term, I'd buy some stair tread carpets and tack them down with finish nails. If you can't find tread carpets, cut up an indoor/outdoor doormat.

By: The 10th Regiment of Foot

The 10th Regiment of Foot — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 13:31:57 -0800

They make varnish-type products that you paint on, some specifically designed for decking (eg - Trusty Step or Safe Tread)

By: Xoebe

Xoebe — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 13:34:23 -0800

Metal stair nose treads as well. Stair noses take a lot of wear. Combine these with the grit tape or indoor/outdoor carpet.

Sample site. You can probably find an equivalent at local large home improvement warehouse.

The nice thing about these, you can screw them on even in poor weather.

By: elizardbits

elizardbits — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 13:35:11 -0800

If for any reason you are unable to find any of these useful suggested products easily, you can use the suction-cup stick-on anti-slip patches for showers and bathtubs temporarily.

By: julie_of_the_jungle

julie_of_the_jungle — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 13:35:15 -0800

Slip resistant strips are great! We used them on our wooden ramp and its no longer a death trap when it rains. They're inexpensive and readily available at hardware stores.

By: rmd1023

rmd1023 — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 13:41:43 -0800

I put grip-tape on the slippery stair treads and it works well.

By: fifilaru

fifilaru — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 14:21:00 -0800

Right now, since the wood is wet, you may just want to sprinkle them with fine gravel.

By: deborah

deborah — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 14:29:57 -0800

Because of the weather, I'd go with the Kadin2048 Solution. Use cut up carpet for a temporary fix. When the weather is nicer they can use any of the above recommendations (no-slip strips, gritty paint, new stair treads, etc.). My mum's steps have the slip-resistant strips that erst linked to and they work well.

By: tim_in_oz

tim_in_oz — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 14:41:38 -0800

We've got about 10 wooden steps leading up to our house. They get slippery when wet and ice up in the winter. Our solution was to use some leftover lightweight chickenwire, stretched over each step and stapled on the underside. Depending on your aesthetic, it might be a little hilbilly for you, but I can confirm it works brilliantly, particularly with ice.

By: kaudio

kaudio — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 15:06:33 -0800

A quick, do it now solution could be to tack down some shingles on the treads with a nail gun, and then look at applying a more elegant grit in warmer and dryer weather.

What has worked well for gripping both my hubby's longboard and the wood steps on my father's sailboat: Apply a thick coat of clear varathane, sprinkle down some sand while the varathane is still wet (a salt shaker works well for this), let dry and seal with 2-3 more coats of varathane.

By: dbmcd

dbmcd — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 16:50:58 -0800

Similar to kaudio, you could also use roll roofing and staple/nail it down on each tread. A quick, cheap fix, but water will get under the stuff, so have your friends take it off as soon as good weather returns, to minimize rot.

By: JackFlash

JackFlash — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 17:10:37 -0800

It is likely that the slipperiness is caused by a thin build up of mold, mildew and algae. This combination gets as slippery as grease when it gets wet. You can remove it with deck wash from your local big box hardware store. Or you can make your own deck wash from a mixture of laundry bleach, a bit of detergent and water. Soak down the stairs with the deck wash, let sit for 15 minutes to allow the bleach to do its work and then scrub with a stiff bristle brush. Flush with a garden hose. This should eliminate the slipperiness. You can try this just with household items on hand and it doesn't matter if it is raining at the time. You might need to repeat this treatment once or twice a year during the rainy season.

By: valannc

valannc — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 21:54:54 -0800

These rubber treads worked really well on our wooden porch steps.
They are thick and heavy and stay in place.

By: looli

looli — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 22:09:12 -0800

A crummy rental I lived in had terrible steps and I finally did just as kaudio suggests, nailed down some shingles. It didn't look great, but it beat the hell out of landing on my ass.

By: Xere

Xere — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 22:49:28 -0800

I'll back the slip-resistant strips. Just today, I was descending some rained-on LA Metro concrete steps. I noticed that they would be completely frictionless if it wasn't for the gritty, sandpaper-like strips embedded in the edge of each step. The friction worked really well, by the way. The steps were small enough so that most feet would be guaranteed to hit the strips.

Since the steps you speak of are wooden, you could tape on the strips instead of pouring around them.

By: palmcorder_yajna

palmcorder_yajna — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 14:48:34 -0800

Thanks all! We went ahead and cleaned the bejeezus out of the steps with deck wash, and that eliminated about 65% of the slipperiness. Actually, it eliminated all of the slipperiness for a bit. Then it rained, and more of the ichorous, green-brown algae-mold leached up out of the wood. So we're doing it again. Eventually, I think our friends are going to end up applying shoes or some sort of textured paint to the steps, but the deck wash will mitigate the sliminess enough to keep people from falling ass-over-teakettle when they come here for New Years. Yay, Team Ask!