Hardwood On Stairs

[fRED mCnEILL]

My daughter wants me to replace the rug on the stairs in her townhouse with flooring to match the floor in the place. The floor is a laminate hardwood flooring.

Not sure how to approach this . Would I nail it on or glue it on and use metal bullnosing or ???

Thanks

Fred Mc.

[JohnT Fitzgerald]

Fred - all depends on the laminate system. Many floors are 'floating' (no nails), but for stairs they probably would be. They also have matching bull nose pieces for the front of the step. I'd say visit your local HD/Lowes and look at their displays - the ones near me actually have a lot on display and can give you ideas.

[Richard Wolf]

Fred, you will find using a product like Nu Stairs, http://www.nustair.com/specs.aspx

makes the finished staircase look more professionally done.
Two problems are; they are not cheap and they need to be installed with some care. I have installed 100s of these, if you have any questions, just ask.

Richard

[Chip Lindley]

Fred, I did just as you are planning to do a few years ago. I used Pergo laminate for the treads of a stairway leading to my downstairs family room. But the bullnose is real red oak.

I rounded over the 7/8" x 1" oak strips with two passes of a 1/2" roundover in the RT. Now the neat part: I cut a rabbet 1/4" wide in the top edge of the bullnose strip to fit it tightly against the front edge of the laminate. The lam overhangs the front edge of the stair riser by 3/16". This leaves a little space to butt the bullnose and lam edge together for a perfect fit. The lam treads were glued down first with Roo Glue--no fasteners in the lam-treads. Concrete blocks on scraps of lam for weight while the glue dried. Then the bullnose was attached with Roo Glue and long air brads.

168870

No squeaks or pops after almost 4 years. Minwax Provincial Oak is almost a dead-on match for my Pergo. I stained and finished the bullnose with two coats of Minwax glossy poly before installation. Risers are 1/4" oak ply applied before the treads were. Faux stringers are 1/4" ply over 5/8 OSB with solid oak edging. Hope this all makes sense! 1000 words = 1 picture!

[Brian Kent]

My staircase has laminate treads with some awful "nose rims". They pop and break and are very uncomfortable on bare feet. Here are some examples:

http://www.1aflooring.com/ProductsList.aspx?cid=286

I recommend that you do not use these. I am planning on rebuilding the stairs in the Spring, and will use a solid wood hardwood. Chip's nose idea looks right if you need to use laminate.

[Jim Staley]

We JUST did this same thing during our basement renovation. Through much research, I leaned that manufacturers require that the laminate be glued down. We used Bruce Everbond engineered floor adhesive on ours, applying it with a notched trowel to the two by treads that were in place. We used the same method on the risers with a slightly different shade of engineered flooring giving slight contrast.

As for nosing, we wanted an all wood look, and after pricing wood nosing that would cover the entire front of the step (existing 2 by material and new laminate) I got sticker shock. So... I made my own. I ripped oak to around 1-3/4". Half of the stock got milled to 3/4" thickness, and the other half was milled down to 1/4" thickness. I then used spring clamps to glue the 1/4 inch material to the edge of the 3/4" material to make an "L". The outside edges of the 3/4" material got a roundover, and I made a jig for my table saw to put a very shallow bevel on the 1/4" material. The beveled 1/4" material lays on the stair tread, and the 3/4" material covers the front of the step. The bevel prevents tripping. These were glued and nailed to the step.

I would advise to find a laminate flooring with some kind of texture to it (ours had a faux wood grain texture) as normal laminate can be slippery!

[Paul Steiner]

I have hardwood 3/4" flooring and I did hardwood on the stairs. Try this before buying any material. Go to your local habitat for humanity restore and see if they have stairs or a loose treads. I bought 2 staircases of 6 steps each at the restore for $50 for both. They were weathered and in a staircase unit. I disassembled the stairs, planed and sanded away the weathering, put in 1 or 2 dutchmen. I cut the bullnoses off my existing stairs and installed the treads on top. $50 for 12 oak steps it will be a long time before I can beat that deal.

[fRED mCnEILL]

Having researched this a little more (i.e. I went to the local flooring store to see what was available) I looked at their hardwood bullnosing. It sticks out 1 1/2 inches past the tread. I plan now to make my own bullnosing. But my question is this.
I noticed on my daughter's stairs(which now has carpet) that the tread sticks out approx 1/2 inch(maybe an inch-didn't measure exactly) past the riser. Is this normal construction for stairs. I'm concerned that with this overhand and the hardwood bullnosing it will stick out TOO far. Unfortunately (or fortunately) we live in a rancher so no stairs.

Thanks

Fred

[Chip Lindley]

Fred, I would fill out your risers 1/2" to meet the edge of the tread. Depending on what treatment you will give the risers. Paint? Hardwood ply? Laminate flooring? Regardless of which, the risers should end up flush with the edge of each tread at a 90 deg. angle. Then add your own bullnose as I outlined earlier. All will even out and be consistent when the bottom step is finished.

Your problem is easy! My two stairways were carpet-covered also. When the carpet was torn off, I found each riser was tapered; slanted back 3/4" at the bottom. (Tacky '60s Modernism!) I ripped beveled 2by strips 3/4" thick at the bottom, and a beveled 2by strip 3/8" thick across the center, glued and air-nailed to build each riser out to 90 degrees. The strips support 1/4" oak ply to cover the risers.

[Richard Wolf]

Standard overhang for bullnose treads are 1 1/4". For some reason, the 1 1/2" bullnose is called New Jersey style. The 1 1/4" bullnose allows you to put 3/4" cove molding under the treads and not infringe on the round over of the tread.

[fRED mCnEILL]

My wife just brought up an interesting question. If you fill in the riser to meet the edge of the tread does this not then make the tread smaller or does the added bullnose compensate for that?

Thanks

Fred