Wayne Whitney wrote:
On 2005-03-01, homeowner wrote:


------------------------------
laminate ! \
---------------------- C |
! /
rough tread !______
|
|
----------------------
| | |
| A | B |
| | |


| -S- |
| - T - |
| - U - |
| V |

A = rough riser
B = finish riser
C = finish nose piece

S = projection of finish nose piece
T = rough nosing
U = finish nosing
V = laminate thickness

U = T + S - V


The laminate nose size S is ususally 1/4" to 1/2".


This is actually what you want to maintain the "nosing" of the stairs,
where "nosing" is the horizontal distance from the riser to the front
of the tread. When you finish the stairs as in the diagram, you
change the old nosing T by increasing it by S (the nosing projection),
and decreasing it by V (the laminate thickness). So in order to not
change the nosing much, you want S (the nosing projection) to be about
equal to V (the laminate thickness, I think 3/8" ?).

As to the vertical gap between the bottom of the nose piece and the
bottom of the rough tread, that does seem unfortunate. Perhaps there
is some sort of trim piece that you could use here?

BTW, stair treads may not be the best application for laminate. Have
you considered solid wood?

Cheers, Wayne

But I believe that laminate nose pieces are designed such that risers
are placed immediately behind the nose projection, which result in a
short fininished nose.

The laminate I was looking for is 5/16" in thickness.

The hardwood treads would usually be 3/4" in thickness. There are one
piece tread that includes a nose area at Home Depot. The thickness is
1"+. That will throug riser size by more than 1" - top step would be
1" less and bottom step would be 1" more.

Another consideration is cost - I don't really want to sunk much money
that will not be recover much, if any, at the time of sale in the
distant future. You can only recover 15% of cost from a basement finish
per:
http://houseandhome.msn.com/improve/...tspayback.aspx