Laminate Stairs With a Hardwood Look in Greater St. Louis

Stairs are the most expensive square footage in any flooring job, because every tread is a cut, a fit and a finished edge. Laminate brings that number down without giving up the look. Veteran Flooring installs AC4 and AC5 laminate stair systems around Greater St. Louis using factory nosings that match the plank, wrapped or painted risers, and finish trim that ties the flight into the floor at the top and the bottom.

It suits rental property, basement stairs, second homes and any house where a dog's claws and a kid's backpack use the same steps every day. Most of the time we are running it up a flight that connects to a new laminate floor, which means the plank, the color and the lot number are all the same from the hallway to the landing.

In a room, laminate floats. On stairs it cannot. Every tread gets construction adhesive plus hidden fasteners behind the nosing, riser caps are glued and clamped, and the joints are finished with color-matched caulk so nothing opens up when the house dries out in January. Done properly a laminate staircase stays quiet, holds its edge and reads as hardwood to anyone who is not down on their hands and knees looking for the seam.

We handle the removal too. Old carpet, pad, staples and tack strip come off first, and any loose tread gets screwed down while the stairs are still bare. Flights in O'Fallon and the St. Charles County subdivisions are usually builder-grade pine under the original carpet, which takes laminate well once the treads are leveled and the overhang is squared up.