hi guys - i'm new to the forum. I'm a DYI'er whose laid a few thousand sq ft of solid oak 3/4" thick flooring. I'm currently laying hardwood in the second floor of my home. it was originally all carpet.

my question is on how to install the top stairnose (the stair treads are already hardwood and I am not touching them). currently the top stairnose is a piece of oak butted up against the subfloor that the carpet laid over. each end of this stairnose is inserted into the stringers. I wanted to just cut the nose flush with the riser and install my new nose, but then there would be an empty cutout in each stringer where the nose once was - and that wouldn't look right. so how should I go about this? whats the correct way to do the job?

i've included a few pictures below. please let me know your thoughts. thanks.

no thoughts out there?

i can't be the only person to encounter this situation?

I'm thinking you can install another riser against the existing, cut the old nosing so that it's flush and install the new nosing on top. It may change change the rise and fall of the treads and risers a bit at the last step, but I've done this to entire mortised stairs just for the purpose of hiding the mortised holes.

Half inch material may work. I can also see a different tread profile thickness as well if you're using matching material for that engineered floor. Maybe you can order a nosing that's designed for a 3/4" hardwood. It will need some creative table saw work to sit even with the engineered floor. This way the appearance of the treads/last nosing would be the same all the way up the stairs.

That's the way I see it from my chair, but you're there and I am not.

theres probably 2 layers..hard way..remove one layer to original subfloor.

easy way..cut nosing back square to riser..and use multi tool to cut it flush to stringer leaving the remaining portion still in the stringer..sand it flat..then paint over it and its gone..if leaving natural, put a little stain to mask..the new nosing will cover much of it

Seems to me a little strange that the nosing would have been cut into the kick board. Looks can be a bit deceiving. Is it completely cut into, as in scribed / cut into the kick, or is it just partially, or not at all just really looks like it?

I say this not to second guess you, but because I have done dozens of apps just like you are encountering and always benefitted from a thorough discovery process.

From the pictures it's hard to really tell and it is a vital beginning point for further substantive input.

flooringinstalls1

I would follow James TRD advice. Then if you didn't get an acceptable finish on the nosing pieces left in the skirts I would get a trim router, make a template to guide a pattern flush cut bit to cut down the left over nosing pieces, and cut a piece of wood to match the grain direction of the skirt and install it into the area cleaned out by the router. Easier way to create the hollow....use a forstner bit the same diameter as the removed nosing. Another option is to create the patch, tape it over the nosing left in the skirt and use a multi tool to cut around the patch....you may have to make the final patch slightly larger to account for the thickness of the multi tool blade.

If you cut the nosing and just install the new stairnose, the old cut stair nose will bee seen from underneath. Some thin 5/16 stain grade laun on the riser.

Which brings me to, what are you doing with the staircase?


When I have an upstairs to do with a stair nose, I will do the staircase and the top nosing(may loose lay the nosing and install later) But I use the stairnose to begin my installation, so I have a full board next to it and not a ripped board.

that's when you put a piece of cove..nicey nice and the remaining portions in stringer are virtually covered.

But then, my wife would make me add that to all the steps that weren't getting redone so they all looked the same coming up.
(he didn't say he was doing the staircase too)