The Present Distribution of Stair Carpets on First Flight of Stairs

(1) The numbers of first flight of stairs.

As far as the present distribution of stairs covering was concerned the inquiry was confined to the first flight of stairs in the home leading up (or down, in the case of a basement) from the main entrance to the home.

Table 14 shows the numbers, and percentages, of households with and without a first flight of stairs.

Table 14

		%
No. of households with a first flight of stairs	824	84.5
No. of households without first flight of stairs	151	15.5
Total	975	100.0

(2) The numbers of carpeted first flight of stairs.

Table 15 shows the numbers of households known to have a carpeted first flight of stairs.

Table 15

Sample	975
No. of households known to have a carpeted first flight of stairs	423
No. of households known to have a first flight of stairs but giving no answer to type stair-covering.	49

From this we estimated that 45.7% of the population have a carpeted first flight of stairs and 38.8% of the population have an uncarpeted first flight of stairs.

These figures are derived from Table 16.

13

(3) The present distribution of various types of stair-covering on first flight of stairs

Table 16 shows the frequencies of various types of stair-coverings analysed by the state of the uppermost covering. The 25 additional cases are due to the recording of instances in which stairs have more than one type of covering. As far as carpet was concerned, “not worn” should be taken to mean that the pile was still present, “worn thin” that the pile had been worn off , and “one or more holes” that the carpet had one or more holes apparently due to wear.

Table 16

	Summary	No Covering	Carpet	Lino	Matting	Felt	Other	No Answer	No Stairs
	No.	No.	No.	No.	No.	No.	No.	No.	No.
No Stairs	151								151
Not Worn	234+8		146	63	3	7	2	21
Worn Thin	303+9		186	101	5	2	1	17
One or more Holes	151+8		91	49	4	4	2	9
No answer	2							2
No Covering	134	134
Totals	975+25	134	423	213	12	13	5	49	151

We infer from these figures that approximately:

45.7% of the 975 households (whole sample) have a first flight of stairs on which is carpet

23.0% of the 975 households (whole sample) have a first flight of stairs on which is linoleum

1.4% of the 975 households (whole sample) have a first flight of stairs on which is felt

1.3% of the 975 households (whole sample) have a first flight of stairs on which is matting

0.5% of the 975 households (whole sample) have a first flight of stairs on which is some other covering

14.9% of the 975 households (whole sample) have a first flight on which is no covering

(15,5% of the sample of households had no first flight)

These percentages add to 86.8. It will be seen from Table 14 above that the percentage of the 975 households which have a first flight of stairs is 84.5. The difference is approximately accounted for by the fact that in 2 5 instances the stairs have more than one form of covering.

Similar we infer that approximately:-

54.6% of the 824 households with a first flight of stairs have on them carpet

27.5% of the 824 households with a first flight of stairs have on them linoleum

1.7% of the 824 households with a first flight of stairs have on them felt

1.5% of the 824 households with a first flight of stairs have on them matting

0.6% of the 824 households with a first flight of stairs have on them some other covering

17.3% of the 824 households with a first flight of stairs have on them no covering

These Percentages add to 103.2. The additional. 3.2% is accounted for by the recording of 25 cases of staircases with more than one type of covering.

14

(4) The state of the top Covering of First Flight of Stairs

Table 17 is abstracted from Table 15 and shows the number of households with a first flight of stairs in which that flight is known to have a covering of carpet, and number in which it is known to have a covering of linoleum. In not more than 25 cases there may be more than one type of covering recorded for a flight of stairs as far as carpet is concerned. ‘‘Not worn” should be taken to mean that the pile is still present; “worn thin’’ that the pile has been worn off, and “one or more holes” that there are one or more holes due apparently to wear.

Table 17

State of Top Covering	All types of Covering		Carpet		Linoleum
	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
Not worn	234	34	146	35	63	30
Worn thin	303	44	186	44	101	47
One of more holes	151	22	91	21	49	23
Totals	688	100	423	100	213	100

It will be seen that approximately 1/5th of the upper-most coverings, have one or more holes due to wear and that approximately 1/3rd do not show marked signs of wear. In these respects the differences between carpet, linoleum and all other types of covering together are not large.