Allstate Rubber’s stair treads are offered in over 100 colors.

By Sarah Zimmerman
For as long as there have been buildings—commercial and residential—there were stairs, and with stairs come not only safety and function, but style and fashion. This year’s stair trends cover both, providing customers with the latest in stair accessories via treads and rods.

“There is real appeal [this year] since, in the past, the aesthetic has been secondary to function and safety,” said Jeff Krejsa, director of marketing for Johnsonite. “This new view provides the opportunity to add excitement into neglected areas.”

Stair treads

For years the main concern of stair treads has been safety, noted Jeremy Whipple, marketing manager, Roppe. “That is why rubber is so highly specified and often required.” However, today consumers, along with safety features, require decorative choice, and stair tread manufacturers are giving them just that with a variety of textures, colors, materials and designs.

Roppe offers rubber and vinyl stair treads. The rubber line consists of 11 profiles in 19 styles. The designs range from round or square nose to offering risers attached or having extended depth. “Rubber offers a natural slip resistance, but when coupled with abrasive strip material or raised designs created to channel water away from the walking surface, rubber treads are an even better option,” Whipple said. In vinyl the company offers two profiles in four styles.

Most recent, Roppe has introduced the SafeTcork brand of tile and treads. Offered in all the company’s tread profiles, the brand expands design and increases safety as abrasive strips can be added in most to meet demands of moist conditions on interior stairwells.

Johnsonite is another company expanding its offerings while maintaining safety and fashion. “Designers and end-users are realizing the stairwell is part of the greater environment and space within a commercial facility, and it must be integrated functionally and aesthetically with the rest of the space. This has created a demand for better aesthetic and more options,” Krejsa said. Therefore, the company has added three textures to its extensive line of rubber stair treads—Bamboo, Cubis and Fast Lane.

According to Krejsa, “Since all three textures are available in rubber tiles, designers understand how the treads allow them to extend this visual aesthetic beyond the floor and into stairways.” All three are also available with ADA-compliant visually impaired strips.

Providing over 100 color choices for all its treads, Allstate Rubber has kept decorative aspects and customer wellbeing at top-of-mind. Allstate treads are manufactured using a combination of synthetic and natural rubber and are compression molded under 2,000 tons of pressure, noted Ivan Stoler, president, Allstate. “This assures lower maintenance costs and longer wear than non-molded treads.”

Allstate offers a range of styles including, Kruger, Ardeche and the latest Brasilia system. Brasilia is a full matching tile line designed to be low vibration. “This is good for areas with carts and wheelchairs and is easy to clean,” Stoler added.

Conceptualizing stair treads simply as step surfaces, Artistic Finishes added treads to its offerings last year. Available in over 55 wood species, treads come in Standard or Universal with several special finishes—distressed, handscraped, worn and wire brushed.

“We have engineered the tread design to provide a more universal product that works on a variety of stair configurations,” said Trina Patrick, marketing director for Artistic. “The Artistic program goes well beyond the standard Red Oak ‘staple’.” The company’s stair treads are also designed with an improved finish that matches the roll-coat finishing process traditionally used on hardwood floors.

Stair rods

The original purpose of stair rods was one of function, to hold stair runners in place. However, with the invention of non-slip pads and tack strips, rods have changed their purpose to one of style and luxury. “Homeowners still prefer the beautiful finishing touch they bring to a staircase,” said Michele Virnig, marketing manager, Zoroufy.

Zoroufy offers a variety of designs and finishes in six lines—Inspiration, Select, Sovereign, Heritage, Dynasty and Grand Dynasty.

Virnig said staircases are becoming a big focus of interior design, and stair rods help create a dramatic and unique decorative effect. Therefore, it’s truly the aesthetics that consumers are interested in. “In terms of finishes, consumer demand seems to be trending more toward the silver finishes, such as our antique pewter and satin nickel, which frequently match other decorative hardware in their homes.”

Zoroufy has also added two sales tools—Stair Rod Plaque Display and Stair Rod Dealer Kit. “Zoroufy stair rods give the retailer another way to increase customer satisfaction and at the same time, increase profits with every runner they sell,” she said.

Ron Prezner, owner of Decorative Hardware Studio (DHS), noted the company manufactures every stair rod to order. “We do not have product sitting on shelves or coming in on container loads,” he said. “You could say we make the stair rods from scratch exclusively for the customer. It’s like the difference between last weeks pie and one fresh out of the over.”

Feeling the budget end of the market is being saturated by lower-quality products, he said, DHS offers 100% brass stair rods of military grade, which provides an extremely high luster and smooth finish, as opposed to the brass-plated products sold over the Internet.

DHS offers its stair rods in 20 custom finishes and manufactures all products in the U.S. individually to the customer’s specifications. Products range in price from about $4 a step to $1,200 a step.

“Regarding trends in stair rods, it appears the darker tones are more in vogue. We have seen a great increase in our oil rub bronze finish, which is a dark chocolate color,” Prezner said. In upper scale products, he noted split finishes are extremely popular this year. “In the budget collections polished brass finish still accounts for the majority of our business. As for DHS Imperial and Renaissance collections, the reverse is true in that only 40% of the rods are in polished brass and 60% are in custom or split finishes.”