What Are Stair Nosings and How to Install Them

Stair nosing are available in either laminated/foiled or in solid wood. They come in lengths of 1m or 3m.

Stair nosing is a safe way to finish your wood or laminate flooring on your stair case by hiding the edges of the wood flooring where the two wood floors meet.

Solid stair nosings

Solid stair nosing comes in a limited number of wood species. The most common is oak.

They are designed to blend in with your floor and to be safe, they have a rebate in the top so the top edge of the nosing lips over the wood fitted to the tread.

Before putting any wood flooring on your stairs you will need to cut off the existing nose on your staircase. This will leave a right angle so that your nosing will fit safely.

You should cut the wood flooring to your tread and to your riser making sure that the wood flooring is cut to the correct position and the lip of the nosing will meet the wood flooring.

You should then cut the stair nosing to the correct width of your stairs.

Using a very strong adhesive such as grip fill, glue the nosing down.

Please see the adhesive manufacturers recommended drying time.

• TIP - Solid wood floors can be routered on the edge of the wood flooring giving the impression that the stairs are made of the wood flooring and it has not been encased.
• TIP - If you have not got a router machine then you may be able to find a woodwork shop that will be able to do this work for you.

Laminated stair nosings

Laminated stair nosing is made from MDF with a paper/foil wrapped around the face.

Laminated stair nosing is quite hard to find. At Floorsave we keep 8 colors in stock all of the time.

The foil/paper that is used is of a much higher quality than the door threshold bars. They have extra grip to make them slip resistant.

They are fitted exactly the same way as the solid nosing.

• TIP - As the choice of colors of laminated nosing is limited, check you can match the color of the nosing to the flooring before you make your final purchase.