Thanks charleee, sorry no better photos as house is in another city, I haven't even set foot inside it yet. I am trusting my husband on this one! Our youngest is 5. Thanks Sheilaskb for the strip suggestion and the advice on the carpet. The kids are really good when we go out, holding onto rails etc but it is another story once we are home. I guess I will need to be a little more vigilant once we move in.

Store stairs

I suspect your best course of action would be to contact a local engineer and/or builder -- without knowing what area you are in , and local rules and regulations , any advice wouldn't be much value from us , and quite possibly won't meet compliance .

We recently installed a stair runner that we love but we really want to re-stain the floors to a much lighter color. This raises the following questions. Please help if you know!! Can we remove the runner stain the stairs and then reinstall the runner? If not, Could we sand/stain/poly around the runner without ruining the runner? Does it looks really bad if the stair treads are dark brown and the first floor is really light? Thanks in advance for chiming in!