Laminate staircase

babyangel10

BTW, is there any reason why you can't just sand your stairs down and varnish them instead of laminate? Are they very damaged or something?

Just wondered

ukwoody

Gerty, whilst not impossible, it is extremly hard to just replace the odd cracked Tread, and has to be from underneath the stairs.

Non slip tape is available in various colours butyou'll need to do a little searching for it.
Personally if I was the original poster, I would invest in very high quality underlay and good quality carpet. Even on the worst stairs it would last years and years as proved in many a hotel and B&B. I have a small hotel near to here where it must have lasted well over 10 years now, and I can assure you, if you were to see the state of the actual stair treads you wont want to walk down them!
Woody

Doozergirl

ukwoody wrote: »

Gerty, whilst not impossible, it is extremly hard to just replace the odd cracked Tread, and has to be from underneath the stairs.

Non slip tape is available in various colours butyou'll need to do a little searching for it.
Personally if I was the original poster, I would invest in very high quality underlay and good quality carpet. Even on the worst stairs it would last years and years as proved in many a hotel and B&B. I have a small hotel near to here where it must have lasted well over 10 years now, and I can assure you, if you were to see the state of the actual stair treads you wont want to walk down them!
Woody

I agree, you could spend far less than £800 on superb quality carpet and underlay. And a good little dustbuster to carry on the stairs. Get some good stuff

babyangel10

Hi,

Thanks for your tips. Yeah I agree that replacing one tread is a nightmare - especially as the underneath is plasterboarded so I don't want to be ripping that out - the treads aren't so much cracked as dented, badly scratched etc.

I did consider carpeting it actually, but the reason I don't want it is simply because of the amount of pets I have - 13 cats and 2 dogs :eek: :rotfl: so it's much easier to just sweep the stairs and damp wipe them when necessary. With carpet I'm sure I'd be forever trying to 'unweave' hairs out of the pile like I used to have to do :rolleyes: Plus the fact that my vac is only a cheapy one and really only suitable for picking 'bits' up after sweeping. So I'd have to fork out for another one to get pet hairs up, which I can't really afford, even if just a dustbuster jobby.

Also, the rest of house is lam and tiles so I feel that a lone piece of stair carpet may look a bit odd. So as I have now stripped the stairs (which was a nightmare!) and filled as many cracks and dents as poss, there's no going back now!!!

I'm deffo not having the laminate stairs though, so it's got to be the non slip tape for me! If anyone does know of any suppliers of this (I have had a major google but not much luck with colours) then I'd be very chuffed.

Thanks again woody and doozergirl :beer:

Canucklehead

Good morning: Gertybertangel....haven't seen you on this forum in awhile. How did the plumbing and electrics work out on your project? http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=556870

My apologies to the OP.

Canucklehead

babyangel10

Hi there! Blimey, never knew anyone would remember l'il ol' me!

Well, I've been so busy with the bloomin extension (and my full time job...) that I've only just found time to get back on here!

But in answer to your question, we finally found a great plumber (not sure if allowed to tell you, but for anyone in Derby it's 'Dial a Gas') and the boss, Sam was excellent.

He said he could only do the job on a daily rate, which I was very sceptical about at first but he said the good thing was that with a daily rate if after 1 day, 2 days or whatever, I wasn't happy then I just pay him for what he's done and tell him not to come back. He said he estimated the job would take 10 days maximum, so I thought, well he's bound to stretch that out for more money, but it came in complete at 7.5 days and he only charged me for 7!!!

Smashing couple of lads did the work (Rob and Greg) and I had to virtually force them to have a cuppa, cos they didn't want to stop working! Sam came round every other day to check I was happy with their work, recommended certain things I hadn't thought of and the work was tidy (well, man tidy ) and they were polite and friendly.

As for the sparky.....He's my OH's mate, and TBH I wish I'd never asked him. 7 months on and he still hasn't finished. :mad:

He works for the council as his day job (:rolleyes:-sorry any council workers, but have had bad experiences in the past...) and always promises to come round either on an evening or Saturday but he started in October and although we are fully connected with all the important things (which took him until Dec to do...:mad:) he's supposed to be coming round 'soon' to finish cutting the holes for the 3 extractor fans that need fitting and connecting my tv aerial and phone points.

He first quoted us half the cost of the original sparky (who tried to rip us off) then the costs have gradually crept up.....So now we aren't far off the bl00dy original quote :mad: I know the last thing people want to do on their day off is have a busman's holiday, but he offered to help so should complete the job. It is only a 2nd fix too, so shouldn't have taken him this long!!!

So, until he's finished I can't get the completion cert from the B.C dept.

I bought a rad to go in my conservatory around December time, ready for winter, but can't fit it until B.C have been cos I *ahem* don't want them to see it (I believe you aren't supposed to have one in there?), so haven't really been able to use the conservatory over winter cos it's too bl00min cold!!!

So, plumber, yep, cracking firm (did I mention they were called Dial a Gas? ), electrician - complete t0sser and waste of time!

Thanks for asking BTW Canucklehead!!! :beer:

(P.S. I am no way connected to Dial A Gas (well, they connected me to the gas and water, but you see what I mean!!!)

babyangel10

Oh and in answer to my own question, I think I have just found some clear non-slip tape on eBay!

Clarion_2

Poppycat wrote: »

Yes thats whats got my thinking I can only assume as others seem to think its just laminate on the steps


Theres a thread on laminate here

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=467996

Some pictures of laiminate here

http://www.cfab.co.uk/gallery/morepictures/laminate_flooring_stairs.html

Laminate can be noisy btw even more so on stairs

The pictures contained within the link (above... http://www.cfab.co.uk/gallery/morepictures/laminate_flooring_stairs.html - feel free to brows the other hundred or so gallery images) are of work actually completed by myself and I would like to answer three main concerns:

1. Noise. As the tread part of the laminate is installed over a strip of underlay, the noise level of staircase laminate is the same as that when it is installed on a standard suspended floor. Indeed, it is less noisy than an open, un-carpeted staircase.

2. Cost. The cost quoted in an earlier posting, of £800, seems about average, as long as the installer is using made-for-purpose accessories. The majority of the cost is made up of the stair nosings... A length of nosing costs around £57 and will, in most cases, only cater for two steps. I would agree that £300 for one day is slightly excessive, given that a staircase laminate installation is really (if you think about it) a one-man job... Two men would be falling all over each other! The average charge for a staircase installation us usually between £700 and £900, depending upon how many 'kites' (tread turns), landing turns and whether the bottom step requires enclosing... The width of the staircase is also an important factor.

3. Slipping. Under normal circumstances, wearing suitable footwear, nobody should ever slip on laminate flooring. Laminate flooring is given a non slip coating and anybody that does slip must be either running or wearing unsuitable footwear, such as socks, or has cleaned the laminate with something inappropriate. The stair nosing that I use were manufactured for the U.S market. Now, the U.S. is the most litigious country in the world (followed by our own dear land). Do you seriously believe that a manufacturer would be so stupid as to actively encourage Americans to install laminate on their staircases, knowing or believing that it was unsafe?... Think about it.

I first installed laminate on a staircase over two years ago (the mahogany looking one in the gallery). Up until that point, I refused as I could not find any made-for-purpose accessories - this would have left me open if I had used accessories that were made for another purpose but "would do" for the job - don't let anybody use accessories that are not specific for the job... This would be suicide. Believe it or not, I was pressured into doing the job by a client who was dangling a large carrot, in the form of another massive job, and I reluctantly agreed. Once the job was completed (it took me a day and a half, incidentally - six kites and a bottom step that required a fair bit of work) I was pleasantly surprised at how even my own concerns had been answered. I now specialise in staircase installation.

John
Flooring Contractor and a member of the Guild of Master Craftsmen.
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional, wait 'till you hire an amateur" - Red Adair.

babyangel10

Very informative John, thanks, and welcome to MSE! :beer:

~Chameleon~

I wish I'd known Quickstep also did staircase laminate before I reluctantly decided to carpet mine, having already done the downstairs flooring in the V4 Vintage Oak :rolleyes: