A stair tread is the horizontal portion of a set of

stairs Stairs are a structure designed to bridge a large vertical distance between lower and higher levels by dividing it into smaller vertical distances. This is achieved as a diagonal series of horizontal platforms called steps which enable passage ...

on which a person walks. The tread can be composed of

wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin th ...

metal A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...

plastic Plastics are a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic materials that use polymers as a main ingredient. Their plasticity makes it possible for plastics to be moulded, extruded or pressed into solid objects of various shapes. This adaptab ...

, or other materials. In residential settings, treads can be covered in

carpeting Fitted carpet, also wall-to-wall carpet, is a carpet intended to cover a floor entirely. Carpet over 4 meters in length is usually installed with the use of a power-stretcher (tubed or tubeless). Fitted carpets were originally woven to the dimen ...

. Stair treads can come in non-slip varieties, particularly in commercial or

industrial Industrial may refer to: Industry * Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry * Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems * Industrial city, a city dominate ...

locations.

Styles of tread

There are a number of different styles of tread:

Mid flight treads.

;Straight or flier.: A standard oblong shaped tread. used in a straight flight. ;Diminishing flier.: Set into the straight section of flight before a turn, with one end narrower than the other Used to change the pitch of the handrail before a 180º turn. ;Winder.: wider at one end, used to turn the flight. ;Kite winder.: A

quadrilateral In geometry a quadrilateral is a four-sided polygon, having four edges (sides) and four corners (vertices). The word is derived from the Latin words ''quadri'', a variant of four, and ''latus'', meaning "side". It is also called a tetragon, ...

shaped tread, used in the corner of a turn: hence the kite name.

Feature or starting treads.

These treads are used to embellish the start of a flight of stairs, they may have either a straight front to them or a commode/curved front to enhance them further. ;Curtail.: An ornate tread that follows the spiral of a volute handrail, the back of the tread will cut into itself and then return along the flight. ;Bullnose.: A straight tread with the front corners rounded off. ;"D" ends.: So called as they look like a D shape attached to the end of the tread. A common style that may be carried up the flight for a number of treads. ;Tower.:The tower feature is a cylindrical addition to the front corner of a tread, intended for setting a newel post onto, the tower may be positioned dependent on the handrail termination. ;Commode front.: The addition of a curve to the front of a tread to create a more decorative feature.

USAB & ADA compliance

According to the

United States Access Board The United States Access Board (also known as the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board) is an independent agency of the United States government devoted to accessibility for people with disabilities. The Board was created ...

, stair treads in buildings shall have uniform tread depths that are 11 inches, or 280 mm, at minimum. Treads are not permitted to have a slope steeper than 1:48. All stair tread installations must comply with Regulation 302 of the

ADA Ada may refer to: Places Africa * Ada Foah, a town in Ghana * Ada (Ghana parliament constituency) * Ada, Osun, a town in Nigeria Asia * Ada, Urmia, a village in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Ada, Karaman, a village in Karaman Province, ...

Standards for Accessible Design. The regulation states that the surface of the

read Read Read may refer to: * Reading, human cognitive process of decoding symbols in order to construct or derive meaning * Read (automobile), an American car manufactured from 1913 to 1915 * Read (biology), an inferred sequence of base pairs of ...

must be firm, stable, and slip-resistant.

Notable sets of stair treads

The

Dylan's Candy Bar Dylan's Candy Bar is a chain of boutique candy shops and candy supplier currently located in New York City; East Hampton, New York; Los Angeles, Chicago, Honolulu and The Bahamas, as well as several US airports and in wholesale venues around the ...

flagship location features a stair case consisting of 53 resin stair treads and three landings that are embedded with real candy and equipped with inserted abrasion strips. China's first children's design museum,

Kids Museum of Glass Kid, Kids, KIDS, and K.I.D.S. may refer to: Common meanings * Colloquial term for a child or other young person ** Also for a parent's offspring regardless of age * Engage in joking * Young goats * The goat meat of young goats * Kidskin, leat ...

, has alternating black and white stair treads on its central staircase, earning the nickname "The Piano Staircase". As part of the Underground Shopping Center Public Art Project, the Seoul Metropolitan Facilities Management Corporation built a

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

staircase in the underground passage at

Euljiro 1-ga Station Euljiro 1(il)-ga Station (을지로입구역) is a station on the Seoul Subway Line 2 Seoul Subway Line 2 ( ko, 서울 지하철 2호선), also known as the Circle Line, is a circular line of the Seoul Metropolitan Subway. The line running cl ...

. Each step lit up and played a note as it was walked on. IDEO Labs' interns created a musical staircase during summer of 2011. Each tread played a different sound when stepped on.

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

students turned a Hackerman Hall staircase into a piano, with a new note per step. The Hopkins Robotics Club modified the staircase so the treads played the C scale.

References

---- {{Commonscat, position=left, Stairs,
Stairs Stairs Stairways Architectural elements Building engineering Safety codes