DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

We're unhappy with the carpet on our stairs as it hasn't lasted well at all, so we're considering getting laminate (Quick Step Eligna, to match the living room) on the hallway, stairs and landing. However it appears that laminate on stairs is a tricky problem as we've had three wildly different quotes for what is required.

We first got a quote from the local flooring shop. They have quite a markup on flooring and charged £455 for fitting.

A joiner/floorer appeared to think that this isn't a great problem and combined with cheaper prices for the flooring managed to almost half the first quote. He has never used the stair nose profiles before though.

A second floorer insisted that removing the noses on the existing stairs will be a hard job and that because our stairs are not very wide anyway, without the noses (which are about 3/4 inch) the stairs will be very narrow. From what I can tell, the Quick Step stair noses have a sizable nose of their own so this may be a problem. I can't tell for sure, but it does look like the nose will need to be removed. He also hasnt used the nose profiles before and generally doesn't do laminate on stairs because of the cost of removing the noses.

So now I've got a complicated mess. Large shop who charges a vast amount more for materials, one floorer who thinks it will be simple (but has never done it like this) and one floorer who thinks it will be a horror (but has never done it like this before).

Has anyone had laminate installed on stairs (which are currently carpetted) using the Quick Step stair nose profiles? Does the existing nose need to come off? How big is the nose on the Quick Step profile?

And finally, anybody know a fitter who has done this sort of thing before in the Hertfordshire/******* region?

Thanks,
Ross

This is probably late now but I would consider sanding down and varnishing the stairs.

I did this in my home 2 years ago and It looks quite good.

The builder's apprentice working alone finished sanding quickly and whilst waiting for me to return decided to prime the stairs..lol (wasn't funny at the time). As a compromise I made him re-sand the treads and varnished this the same beech as the laminate floor. I then had the risers finished with white gloss to match the white walls.

I later saw this effect in magazines and it does look fairly unique and good. £100.00 to sand the stairs and another £100.00 for finishing...very reasonable.

yes stairs can be done with either quick step profiles or you can use sticatack profiles.using this version you have to battern the stair case out using 2'+1'. average cost for a staircase and normally a small landing is in the region £600-£700.This may sound expensive but remember once it is down its down for life,and works out much cheaper than replacing a carpet every 2 years.Iwould recomend afloor layer do this as it is quite specialised.good luck,badge the floor layer