Shopping for a stair carpet that goes far, flies near, to the stairs away from here

January 2, 2011 12:35 PM

I need to buy carpet runners for two flights of stairs in my house, and haven't seen anything I liked as of yet. What carpeting stores in Toronto should I visit? I don't want anything too out of the ordinary — just something subtle/neutral in tan or a light brown, reasonable prices, and good service in store (I'll be installing it myself).
posted by orange swan to Shopping (2 answers total)

Best answer: I've had nine years' worth of very good experiences at our nearby Carpet Mill with all of our other rugs - and I'm on this same hunt myself now, since a source for individual carpets for the treads didn't work out. They're at 469 Carlaw, just north of Gerrard. Plenty of free parking or, the TTC goes right there (Pape Bus, or a short walk up from Queen). It's large, clean and bright and everyone there is good at what they do and easy to communicate with.

What I like that they have is not so much the rolls of stuff that's designed for stairs, though they do, both fancy, traditional and plain industrial - but they will make runners from remnants, since they do all their own work on-site. They have a huge remnant selection, and can do custom runners from that with the binding at $1 per linear foot; or, as I've seen, since the standard flight in this neighbourhood in TO seems to be fifteen stairs, they've got these ready-made runners from some remnants in that length, and nice quality ones at that. That selection varies, based on what they have around and how much time they have to be binding things on spec. Since I often shop at the No Frills next door, I've been popping in to see what they have lately, but got too busy over the holidays and need to get back to it. I'm looking for a runner that's dirt-coloured, btw.

And they are honest about how easy it is to install runners yourself - they didn't try to upsell me on installation or padding. And in the past, they have done better prices on ready-to-go remnants when I've paid cash, or thrown in the cheapest underpad. They also, for a while, had a cage of parakeets and canaries that kept my kid busy, and was nice to listen to while I shopped.
posted by peagood at 10:51 AM on January 3, 2011

Response by poster: I went to Carpet Mill and bought a carpet I think is perfect. Thanks!
posted by orange swan at 1:00 PM on April 14, 2011