If you're laying carpet or vinyl on a flight of stairs, you'll need to include the stair measurements in your proportional drawing.

This drawing shows a typical 'box step' staircase. The important dimensions for a flooring installer are:

• height of the riser
  
  
• depth of the tread
  
  
• width of the tread.

Here are the steps involved in measuring up a flight of stairs.

1. Check the widths of the bottom, middle and top treads. If they're all the same, you can assume that all stairs are the same width.
   
   
2. Measure tread and riser on one step and add them together.
   
   
3. Count the number of steps in the flight. Multiply the number by the measurement you've derived from Step 2. This will give you the total length of carpet or vinyl needed for the staircase.

Example

Let's say the drawing above shows part of a staircase made up of 12 steps. The calculations are shown below.

Tread + riser = 270 + 180 = 450 mm

12 steps        = 12 x 450 = 5400 mm total lengt