Laminate Flooring on Stairs- Finished!
Well, we finally finished the laminates on the stairs. It took a lot of prodding and the visiting grandparents noting how the stairs looked the same this Christmas as they did last Christmas to finally get moving, but they are complete.
Generally, they came out pretty well. Of course there are always learning experiences.
The decision of how to finish the stairs should be made along with the flooring decision. It's easy to put off thinking about nosing when the stairs are on the other side of the house from where you are starting. The problem is that many of the more lower tier brands of flooring don't consider the stairs. Thus, you can end up with simply having no option for the nosing.
What is frustrating is that the little guidebook in the home improvement store will list matching stair nosing as something you can order. But it's not true. Yes, you can order it, and it is supposed to match, but what our experience was is that they pick a close color match for an overlapping nosing and leave it at that. It's ok for some applications, but you really want real, interlocking, matching stair nosing. Without it, you have a lip on each stair. You get used to it, but it shouldn't have to be there.
I suppose one advantage of the overlap is that it eliminates one spot where your cut line would be visible. The only time you see two pieces of flooring together is right where the riser meets the tread, which isn't that big of a deal. In the long run, the hardwood should have a running on top of it for safety and appearance, so this is one project where you can get away with a lack of precision, but still have a great looking stairwell. For us, it's miles above carpet.
