Hi,
I'm new to this forum and fairly new to laying floors. But I have a question which I hope someone could help me out with.

I decided to remove carpet on my staircase and upstairs level and install oak as well as restain all the railings. I've disassembled all the newels, handrails, baluster etc. both on the staircase and upstairs landing. So on the upper floor it's just the subfloor and a long way down. I am replacing the carpet and laying hardwood in my upstairs and need help deciding whether the hardwood should be installed under the shoe rail (a 12' long piece of oak that the balusters dowel into since there is no plow) or should I reinstall the entire railing onto the subfloor and then install my hardwood around the shoe rail and newel?


I've attached two images to hopefully show you what I'm asking.

Thanks,
http://ivano.8k.com/cgi-bin/i/images/be ... emoved.jpg


http://ivano.8k.com/cgi-bin/i/images/af ... emoved.jpg

You will need to install a nosing there first, the proper one is a 5 1/4" wide landing tread (nosing) to mount the guardrail too. A standard 3" stair nose is not wide enough to fully support a guardrail. The flooring would tie into the nosing.

Hi Jerry,
Thanks for the suggestion, that would certainly work. Since the shoe rail is already perfectly made to shape, with all the holes to accept the baluster's and when it was already assembled the whole thing was really sturdy I'm inclined to leave it. I measured the thickness of the shoe rail and it's an inch thick. So, could I not just router a grove into the side of it so the new floor could tie (tonge) into it?

Thanks,

It's your home and homeowners are allowed to do most anything they want to. I'm at a disadvantage because if I perform a service and take money for it I would have to use the landing tread to pass code here. Since landing treads are wider they allow for direct nailing into floor joist instead of 1" or 1 1/2" of wood sitting on top of a joist header.

Your idea should work.