Hi! We are replacing carpeted stairs/landing with engineered flooring on the landing (but leaving the carpet on the steps) and I'm trying to figure out how to handle the transition around the stair nose without leaving too much of a height difference/bump where the flooring meets the stair nose.

Because there is a height difference around the spindles also we are thinking of notching out the flooring planks on one side... and then notching out some molding to put on the other side (so that it has a rounded look on the edge) and butting the two against each other, around the spindles.

Please see pictures... any suggestions would be appreciated.

https://imgur.com/3585udv
https://imgur.com/flXq0nI

One option for transitioning from engineered flooring to carpeted stairs is to use a stair nose molding. This is a type of trim that is specifically designed to bridge the height difference between the two types of flooring. It can be installed by notching out the flooring planks on one side and attaching the stair nose molding on top, which will create a seamless transition. Another option is to use a reducer molding which is a transition strip that sits on top of the stair nose and sits flush with the engineered flooring, creating a smooth transition.

A mark of professionally installed work is to notice that the trim goes with the product. If you have not purchased all the materials I recommend using a thinner flooring, 6mm to match what you took off the floor. Then you would have the same look as original, except for the oak nosing, which could be refinished with a different color matching the new flooring. When the height of a new flooring product comes close, but not quite the same, it creates a problem that a matching trim at the same thickness is off just a little, but hard to blend. Sometimes a colored caulk will work.
The best solution would be to check out matching nosing from the manufacturer and tear out all the old oak nosing then install new to match your laminate.
It looks like you had a top-nailed floor that you took out. Installing a cheap flooring to take the place of a solid oak flooring that might have needed to be refinished to change the color.

Thanks so much for the help!

So we have part of the solution... we are going to replace the stair nose (we'll used an unfinished one and we'll stain the stair nose and the wood on the overhang).

Now.. to the issue of the overhang... Pete, I agree about the mark of professionally installed work is the trim.. and unfortunately this is not going to look like that. This is new to us (obviously) and because it's a rental house we've tried to minimize some of our expenses because we had unexpected expensive. And while I appreciate the effort... sometimes my husband acts before really thinking things thru... and he is concerned with safety and practicality while I'm concerned with aesthetics. And that's a definite problem this time. But I digress...

The 6mm would have probably been a great idea.. but we've purchased the product. Originally we weren't even going to do the landing (just leave it carpeted) and then do the flooring in the 2 bedrooms off the landing. In which case the flooring we purchased would be fine...but he ended up taking up the carpet so that we could do the flooring there.

The new product is Pergo 12 mm (10 mm product and 2mm attached underlayment). And it's even thicker than the 10mm product I had in the first pictures (we put that one in another room) so that's made it worse. This is the actual product:

Here's the actual flooring we're using:

https://imgur.com/a/NvoK6hO

https://imgur.com/nvnuIMv

https://imgur.com/hsVf0oo

https://imgur.com/DQp5dtV

My husband is talking about using a reducer molding and either notching the molding or shaving the baruster itself so that it butts up against the existing floor (not overlap or sit on top of the existing floor). I think it will look weird to have it butt against the existing floor because of the curve with the reducer... and maybe having it on top of the old floor might look better... is there is a something like a t-molding that isn't curved and and could sit on top of the old floor? Even something not floor related...

We are going to stain the trim and probably the old wood but the colors aren't going to match (old floor, trim and new floor) so you have the problem with the colors and height. Ideally if we could just have the new flooring against the old flooring that would only be 2 colors, but I don't know how that would work, especially with the height difference.

It's a mess. Sigh. Any suggestions would be appreciated

Thank you for your help!

We have found a solution: we pulled up the 3/4" subfloor and are replacing it with 1/2" plywood so that the new flooring can slide under the balusters and butt against the overhang. We aren't going to do anything with the stair nose. Then my painter is going to stain the overhang and stair nose so it will be closer in color. Yay!