Is laminate for stairs really this expensive?

alexanderalexander

Hello all,

My builder tells me that laminate flooring for stairs will cost £37 per stair (so a total of £481 for a standard staircase) for materials alone, before even getting started on the cost of fitting.

Does anyone know if there is any cheaper way of doing this? I was wanting the whole house in laminate, but if it’s really this expensive I’ll probably put a carpet on the stairs (or just leave them bare wood and paint it, although would that look odd?)

Alex

pinkteapot

If you know anyone with laminate stairs, try running up and down them in socks. It can be slippy! Personally I'd always have carpet on stairs for this reason. Even if I had wooden stairs, I'd put a runner carpet down the middle...

Stooby2

It's a seriously fiddly job putting laminate on stairs, especially if you want them clad, i.e. not just the top of the step. You need stair nosing for the edges and other bits & pieces. Hence the cost.

And you end up with a slippery set of steps that you may need to add a non-slip varnish to. You could try sanding back to bare wood and varnishing to match the laminate?

Gra76

We had a laminate stair system installed in our last house. It's not cheap for a reason.

Building out the risers to pack out the vertical section of the laminate is a job in itself. You'll also have a lot of wastage from the boards so expect to use a fair few packs up.

You've also got the bullnose incizo pieces to buy (one for each step) and they're not cheap either.

It's not just the cost of the materials that was the main cost for us though, it was the labour. Our best joiner charged me £15 an hour (he's worth more than that, he's very very good) and it took him almost 3 full days to complete the job including the half-landing so over £400 in labour on top of the materials (and no, he didn't slack off at all, I was in the house while he was doing it and as a manager at the builders he works for I knew he wouldn't extract the urine).

It was worth it though as it looked fantastic when it was finished.

As for it being slippery, it was fine, never slipped once on it and neither did any of our 3 (very clumsy) kids.

jellie

pinkteapot wrote: »

If you know anyone with laminate stairs, try running up and down them in socks. It can be slippy! Personally I'd always have carpet on stairs for this reason. Even if I had wooden stairs, I'd put a runner carpet down the middle...

I guess if you've chosen laminate or wood stairs, you'll not be running up and down them in socks.

I've fallen down carpeted stairs, twice. And I wasn't running.

RichardD1970

I did mine in Bamboo. The nosing's were £18 each, 1 for each step the I think it was a couple of boxes of flooring at £25pm for the risers and treads.

Did it myself and it want too hard, but then I like laying floor for some strange reason. :rotfl:

tomba_2

alexanderalexander wrote: »

Hello all,

My builder tells me that laminate flooring for stairs will cost £37 per stair (so a total of £481 for a standard staircase) for materials alone, before even getting started on the cost of fitting.

Does anyone know if there is any cheaper way of doing this? I was wanting the whole house in laminate, but if it’s really this expensive I’ll probably put a carpet on the stairs (or just leave them bare wood and paint it, although would that look odd?)

Alex

If the wood is good old fashioned "wood" then why not sand it down and give it a varnish or stain...it'll look great (non gloss...too slippy...like the laminate option...Nooo!).