What kind of staple gun & staples should we use for our basement stairs?
Sure, staples are going to “damage” the wood, but the damage is negligible if you’re going to have the stairs carpeted later anyway. Any staple gun will work, but it really would be better to use tack strip instead. If you use staples, they will only hold the carpet where the holes are. If you look at a tack strip, you’ll see that there’s a lot more holding power there. I’d recommend that you skip carpeting the stairs until it can be done properly. In the meantime, you can install additional traction on stairs. It’s like an asphalt strip that sticks to the wood, but you can get it anywhere that you can buy stairway materials. It’s something that you’ll see commercially in staircases in multi-level garages, etc. It’s designed to get wet and withstand heavy wear.
