When deciding on carpets for stairs, there is a lot to take into consideration.
Ideally, the best carpet for stairs would be a very dense, short pile carpet. This would allow the carpet to look better for longer on your stairs. The short, dense bristles allow then to stay upright for as long as possible to delay flattening of the carpet.
A tightly looped carpet is also very good for stairs, this is less likely to flatten and look better for longer. It isn’t advisable to choose these if you have cats in the home. Looped pile carpets tend to offer some resistant for cats which promotes clawing at the carpet.
While long piled carpets are more comfortable and luxurious underfoot they will flatten sooner than other carpets on the stairs.
This is a risk you will knowing need to decide on when deciding on the stair carpet, either comfort or durability?
Underlay also plays a very important part in looking after your stair carpet.

Choosing the correct pile is very important, this will depend on your requirements from the carpet.
Wool carpet tends to keep its shape for longer, with the twist pile bouncing back quickly as it’s a natural fibre.
Short pile carpet is less luxurious but looks better for longer as the shorter pile has less to flatten.
Longer pile carpets feel softer and luxurious, which allow you to feel the comfort and the pile getting between your toes. While the comfort levels can be very high, these tend to flatten quicker and less likely to retain their original shape because of the long pile.
To conclude:
Generally, the shorter and tighter pile is better as you can retain the softer feeling with a better or softer underlay while still retaining the appearance of the pile for longer.

Carpet underlay is a fundamental part of buying a new carpet. It’s important that you do some research before replacing your carpet, making sure that you choose the right carpet underlay for each room in your home.
Often when we are choosing a new carpet, we focus on buying a beautifully soft carpet that feels really luxurious and soft, only to be disappointed a couple of years later when the carpet feels really hard and flattened. While this is partly because of the type of carpet, underlay also plays a big part in the feel of your carpet. This plays an even larger part over time.
It’s definitely recommended to buy new underlay when you replace your carpet, rather than using the existing underlay. The best type of carpet underlay will provide thermal insulation, reduce noise, make the carpet feel softer underfoot and will help the carpet last longer as it acts as a shock absorber.
In short, we highly recommend the new blown rubber underlay. It’s recycled, recyclable and has great heat retention. It keeps its original shape for longer whereas PU (foam) underlays tend to flatten over time.
When choosing a PU underlay its very important to select one that is very dense and doesn’t give way very easily. While this will portray the effect of being softer now, it will give way very quickly and won’t look after your carpet as well in the years to come.