Tips for laminating stairs and many thanks


  #1  
Old 01-09-05, 11:07 PM
bey
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Tips for laminating stairs and many thanks

Done! I'm done!

After 6 months of fear and trepidation, I finally tackled laminating my stairs. I took me 4 days and I've banged up my hands something fierce, but I'm proud to say I'm finally finished. The stairs look pretty darned good too, if I say so myself.

Since stairs are a recurring topic around here, I thought I'd post some things I learned.

1. I've heard that the pros charge $75 - $100 per step for installation. There's a reason for that. Laminating stairs is one holy PITA. Only you know if the headache is worth it.

2. I sprang for a new saw blade just for the stairs. 80-tooth carbide and worth every penny. Virtually no chipping, which was important to me since I didn't want to have to use trim, which I think looks unprofessional.

3. Figure out how deep your new treads will be and check your local building code. I chose to keep my existing bullnose and build out my risers. Because the bullnose on my laminate is not as deep as the existing bullnose, I ended up losing almost 3/4" in tread depth. 5 minutes googling got me the information I was looking for and I'm still within specs. It would be a real shame for someone to put their house on the market only to have the inspector deliver some really, really bad news. Check first.

4. Each step will use 3-4 planks of laminate, depending on whether you can reutilize any scraps or not. Don't use vertical joins, but you'll probably need horizontal joins. My laminate planks are 6.16" wide so I had to use 2 pieces for each tread and each riser. Plus I made mistakes-a-plenty. Buy extra.

5. My stairs are not square. I learned this the hard way I very carefully measured my first riser, cut.....and it didn't fit. I even more carefully measured again, cut.....and it didn't fit. On my 3rd attempt, I finally figured out what the problem was. Since I had 2 scrap risers at that point, I used one as a template. I trimmed it about 1/2" short, fitted it into place, and used cardstock (ok, they were Christmas cards, but they were heading to the trash anyway, right?) to fill in the gaps. I marked them left and right and taped them to the template, butting the straight edge up against the stringers. Then I clamped my template to my riser plank (precut for height), lined a straightedge along the free edge of the card stock, marked it and cut it. I had to cut freehand on the tablesaw, which is a problem for me since I have an astigmatism - there are no straight lines in my world. I ended up with some small gaps. Only 2 are greater than 1/32" and I'm still figuring how I'm going to disguise them. I think a teensy bit of caulk covered by a new paint job for the stringers will fool most eyes, even if it never fools mine. I know too much. I did the same thing for the treads. I'm sure the pros have a better way to deal with the not-square issue, but this was the best idea I could come up with and it worked.

6. Dry fit EVERYTHING before you glue, including the bullnoses, step back and give it the evil eye. Need I say that I didn't do this? I dry fit as I went along, got everything cut, and glued it into place. That's when I discovered that the top bullnose did not completely cover the subfloor. Because the stringer does not rise to the top surface of the subfloor, I needed 2 tabs of laminate on either end of the top riser to cover the gap. I pried off the bullnose and the top riser - Liquid Nails sets up faster than advertised BTW, at least on my stairs - and recut the riser. (3 times - don't ask, but see above about buying extra.)

7. Start at the bottom and work your way up. The recommendations I read said to hold the risers in place with the glued tread and the glued bullnose. I ended up gluing my risers in place above my treads. When I dry fit the tread butting up against the riser, I had a small gap where they met, probably due to the not-square problem. I didn't like that so I ended up putting my risers on top of my treads, gluing them to my build-out strips. We'll have to see how that holds up to the inevitable bumps from shoes. It should be ok, since I glued them well.

8. An unexpected bonus is that my stair creaks have been noticably reduced now that the laminate is on. I tried my best to deal with creaking before I installed the laminate, without much success. My furnace duct coming upstairs runs under my steps and they are only accessible from above. Come to think of it, that may be why my Liquid Nails set up so fast.

So now my flooring project is completely finished. Hurray! I want to thank everyone on this board for the invaluable help you've been, especially the pros who so selflessly give their time to us wannabe DIYers. You patiently answer the same questions a billion times and are amazingly generous with your experience and your knowledge. Thanks a million! I could never have done this without you.

And for those newbies who are wondering if they can install their own floor all I can say is if I can do it, ANYONE can - go for it!

But do your homework first
 
  #2  
Old 01-10-05, 03:41 AM
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Location: Austin, TX
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Glad everything worked out for you.


The only difference in pro and DIY is, most pros are thinking 5- 10 steps in the proceedure ahead, and plan way ahead of time for concerns.

DIY, seem to deal with it when they get there. After your virginity is broken, you too think 10 steps ahead on the next one.
 
  #3  
Old 08-08-05, 07:44 AM
feramorzz
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Bull nose, to trim or not to trim?

Many thanks for this message. I am making a list of things to be covered before I begin to seriously consider replacing carpet with laminate on my stairs.

To start with, the steps are open on one end, with a railing that is screwed onto the existing steps. The existing steps appear to be either regular douglas fir or some kind other kind of wood. Can't really tell unless I take the carpet out, but either way it doesn't matter.

Side view
====>
XXX|
ooooo====>
XXXXXXXX|

Front view
..............
........................
........................ ========|
oooooooooMetal railing =>|XXXXXXX|
Overhang = 1-1/2 inch => ========|Wall
........................ |XXXXXXX|
........................ ========|


I have a picture but I can't seem to attach it. I do have a bunch of questions though...

Given the stair profile above [This html rendering is screwy. but if you cut and paste into notepad it appears to look reasonably close ], is there a way to install laminate without taking out the bull nose, represented above with the ">"?

If I do have to remove it, do I have to take the step out, run it through my table saw? Can I do it in place with a jig saw, circular saw? A table saw would be preferably but taking it out and putting it back is more work, and it comes along with breakages, realignment etc. Also the step extends about 1-1/2 inches beyond the metal railing on the left and that would need to be trimmed too I would assume.

Then the railing/bannister. The stair now has a metal railing that is screwed into the stairs and I can see it being screwed into the wood through the laminate or the laminate could be cut out around the metal base. Is there a reason to do it one way or the other, i.e. water damage? building codes? stability?

Do you caulk all the edges of the steps?

The most important thing I'm beginning to find is to be patient and dry fit twice before gluing anything down and to be measure thrice and cut once.

Thanks in advance and I'll post this pic as soon as I figure out how to attach it.


 

Last edited by feramorzz; 08-08-05 at 08:18 AM. Reason: alignment
  #4  
Old 08-08-05, 11:50 AM
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To get away from cutting off the bullnose on the framed steps, do like they did above and add wood to the risers, to bring it out flush with the treads nose overhang.

The side are going to look better cutting them off, rather then adding to the underside to be square. You would have a big block out there. Cut the sides off.


The railing is removed, the flooring installed on the steps, and then the railing is replaced, on top of the flooring.
 
  #5  
Old 08-08-05, 12:15 PM
feramorzz
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Thank you!

Thank you sir. Exactly what I wanted to know.
 
 

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