Wow... thanks for all the great ideas! I had wondered whether finishing them off on the back so they aren't open should be considered. Just afraid it will make a small room seem even smaller so not sure. There was a photo in oceanna's link towards the bottom that I liked where the staircase is finished off behind the steps and they have the driftwood like paneling/shelves and some beachy stuff on them. Loved the staircase candy link -what great ideas there! And just fun to look at. I think the other idea that could really work is still doing a runner, but rather than wrapping it around the whole step like I originally thought was the only option...is looking at some of the 'stair tread mats' that were in deedees link. Love the sisal mats! seems we could keep the openness and not have such a "heavy look" of carpeted steps. Filing these ideas away! DH has a ways to go on the remodel but want to be ready!

In my experience it is usually architects who are concerned about the liability for designing guards that can be climbed. I know of no national building code restriction regarding the orientation of the elements that are used to prevent a 4" sphere from passing through a guard. However, there might be local restrictions. Another concern with cable guards is maintaining sufficient tension to prevent the code required maximum opening dimension from increasing when someone press on them or tries to climb them. The tough parts to design are the ends where the cables must be well anchored and able to be stretched.

We have been crazy busy this last week removing all the steel studs, furnace and two 50 gal water heaters from the basement to make ready for the new concrete floor so sorry I am just now getting back to here. We just finished late yesterday and we are both really sore from all that manual labor getting everything out. The company that will be putting in the concrete started at 7 a.m. this morning welding the iron that will hold the corrugated steel sheets that will hold the 4" concrete floor. When they are done with that, we will spend the next three days laying in the vapor barrier to cover the dirt and we also have to put extensions on the two sump pits. Prior to this, we had to have the OSB flooring removed and about 1 foot X 2,200 square feet of expansive soil removed, new helical piers drilled, the second sump pit installed and new perimeter trenches dug and new french drains and rock put in so this has been a horrific costly project. We have done any and all work we can do ourselves to defray costs. Thank you all for so much helpful advice...I appreciate all of it!! We did check into having tubes put into the concrete to carry heated water to heat the floors but about 80% of the floor will be carpeted and we have been told that heated floors would not be efficient with carpet. There may be some great pad to use under the carpet that provides more insulation too. There will be a tiled bath and a work/hobby room that we will put the heated mats under the tile. We may put in a high efficiency stove/fireplace in the future. I have been reading about all kinds of concrete sealers, one has tea tree oil in it which protects against mold and it seals against radon too so I think we will seal the concrete floors for an extra layer of security! We will also have this super heavy duty vapor barrier down on the soil. We live in Colorado so it can get very cold here and we also have radon issues. Back to the stair issue...I have received about 50 responses to the ad I put on Craig's List. One guy said he was experienced with stairs and it was probably a half day job and would be about $100 labor plus materials. That sounds really low but I plan to call each one back and screen them - or at least the ones who answered my ad in the way I asked them to - and the ones that look good I will have come look at the stairs and give me a bid. I realized that it doesn't make much sense to have them look at it until the concrete floor is in which will now be the second week of June.

Not sure if this will help, but we had our carpeted stairway converted to hardwood last year as part of our first floor remodel. Ours is open for 5 stairs at the bottom. In addition to the stairs, we had a new newel post, ballisters, and hand rail installed, some of which is cherry. The price we paid ($5,950) also included all new trim on the first floor (8 windows, 6 doorways, plus baseboards in 4 rooms).