How to Install Laminate Flooring on a Staircase

Tools Required:	Materials Required:
Pry bar/crowbar	Laminate Flooring Panels
Tape Measure	Nails/glue
Pen/pencil	Riser material*
Handsaw	Flooring adhesive
T-bevel	Molding
Knife/box cutter/razor/scissors	Caulking
Hammer	Staples (optional)
Pneumatic nail gun (optional)	Vapor barrier/underlayment (optional)
Jigsaw/reciprocating saw (optional)
Staple gun (optional)
Table saw (optional)
Chop saw (optional)	*Riser material can be the laminate or other surface

My wife and I have wanted to install laminate or hardwood floor in the house to replace our crumby old 1970s style shag carpet.  After a trip to Home Depot, my wife and I decided on a laminate floor because it's significantly less expensive that real hardwood.  The finish looks just as nice and as long as we aren't keying it like a vandal to car, it will hold up just fine.

We agreed on a wood pattern call Tortola Teak by Hampton Bay and she set me to work over the course of a few weekends putting the floor in the living room, stairs and hallways.  The stairs were more challenging than the living room and hallways, but were still do-able.  While doing the stairs it occurred to me this would be an excellent opportunity to show others how to install laminate flooring on a stair case, so here we go:

Step 1: Remove existing flooring.

If you have hardwood floors, use a pry bar and hammer to pull up the floor panels to expose the sub floor (surface under the panels).

If you're like me and you have carpeted stairs, just grab a corner and pull it all off.  Underneath the carpet will be the padding.  This will have to be removed too, grab it and pull it off.  Now use the pry bar and hammer to remove the carpet tack strip.

This carpet has got to go

Tear out the padding

Demo is the best part of a remodel

After removing the tack strips, either take a pair of pliers and remove, or use a hammer and hammer down all the nails and staples that are outstanding on the sub floor.  You'll need these guys out of the way when you put the laminate flooring down.  If the padding was glued down, you'll need to scrape off any left of padding chunks with a razor blade, box cutter or floor scraper.

Your sub floor should be completely exposed, clean and flat.  Now it's time to cut off the over hang.

Step 2: Cut off the Overhang


The over hang is the little "lip" of the stair tread (the stair tread is the part you step on when you walk up the steps) that protrudes over the vertical part of the sub floor (the vertical part is called the stair riser, since is rises the stairs with each step).  This little overhang is there to make room for the tack strip so the carpet goes straight up with each step.  You'll want to cut that overhang off.  Use a jigsaw, reciprocating saw or do it by hand with a hand saw and some elbow grease.  The jigsaw is probably the easiest to use.  The reciprocating saw will make the cutting much faster but is much more powerful and harder to handle.  Your stairs may not have an overhang due to a previous remodel.  If this is the case, skip this step.

Cut off the overhang

Cut the overhang off so the stair tread is flush with riser.  The blade guard on the jig saw will prevent you from cutting the overhand off completely when it hits the wall, so you'll have to use a hand saw to cut the last little chunk off.

Cut that little nub off with a handsaw

Now is a good time to clean up all the sawdust, wood chunks, nails, staples and other project mess.  You'll want your sub floor to be completely clean for the next steps.

Each step should look like this:

Step 3: Placing the Underlayment (optional)

If you are gluing your laminate floors to the stairs, skip this step and go to step 4.

If you're planning on nailing the panels in you have the option to put and underlayment between the laminate panels and the sub floor.

I suggest putting underlayment on the treads and the riser.  This will soften the tread when you step on them, making it easier on your feet, it will make the stairs quieter and it will level out any imperfections on the sub floor, making your finished staircase look better.

Vapor Barrier/Underlayment

Either measure and pre-cut the underlayment, or secure it then cut off the excess.

For my staircase, I stapled the underlayment to the steps then cut off the excess with a box cutter.  If your stairs are extra long and you have to use two pieces of underlayment; lay them next to each other and seal the seam where the join with duct tap.

Staple it Down

Cut off the Excess

Once you've laid the underlayment, your stair case should look like this:

Step 4: Cutting and Installing the Stair Treads

Measure the total area of space you want to cover with the laminate floors.  Calculate the area (in square footage).  This is the amount of surface area on the stairs you'll cover with the laminate flooring.  Purchase 110% of the surface area to be covered.  You'll be cutting a lot of pieces so you want some wiggle room for excess.

Your laminate panels probably aren't wide enough to cover the entire tread with once piece, so you'll have to cut a second piece to fit.  You may want to cut both pieces to equal size depending on the pattern on your laminate (You'll have two panel pieces per tread).  Fortunately for me, the pattern was pretty consistent and I only had to cut the second piece.  You can use whatever saw cutting tool you have to cut the panels lengthwise, but a table saw will give you the straightest, best cut.

When you cut your panels for the stair treads, remember to account for any sub floor surface space on the treads the stair nose will require.  Certain stair noses require up to several inches of exposed tread sub floor for proper application.  Stair nose is the "lip" that goes over the edge of the tread.  It protects the integrity of the tread panels and is a nice accent feature.

Exposed sub floor for stair nose

Once you've cut the panel(s) lengthwise, you'll need to cut them down to length so they'll fit on the stair case.  A chop saw will be the easiest, most accurate tool to use here.  Once you cut them to the right length, place them on the tread sub floor.  They probably won't fit in, but that's normal.  Unless the remodeling gods have been kind to you and blessed you with a stair case that is built and perfect 90 degree angels throughout, you'll have to do some extra cutting.

Use a T-bevel, which is kind of like a contractor's protractor (that's an awkward phrase, probably why they called it a T-bevel instead) to measure the angle the sides of the panels will need to be cut.

T-Bevel being used to measure angles

Once you've got the angle, transcribe it to the panel by marking it with your pen or pencil.

This measure/transcribe method is used for the treads and risers

Now that you've transcribed the angle to the laminate panel, cut along that line.  Be very careful, this cut needs to be very, very precise.

Now slide your laminate panel onto the sub floor.  It should fit snug, right in and there should be no unsightly gaps exposing the sub floor (it's ok if this happen, you'll cover all your sins with molding later).

If you are using glue, glue the panel down.  If you're doing like me, nail the panel down in inconspicuous places (preferably places that will be covered with the molding).

Now, using the same T-bevel process for the first panel, do it again for the second panel.  Once it's cut, slide it into place and snap it into the first panel per the manufacture's instructions (assuming it's an interlocking panel system).  Nail down (or glue) the second panel.  It should look like this:

Do this for each step.  Starting at the top is usually better for two reasons.  First, as you work your way “down” the steps, you run less risk of damaging them because if you work your way “up” you’re using the step you just completed as work space and can potentially damage it with your tools while you work.  Secondly, if you glue the treads on and you work your way “up” the stairs, you’ll be stuck upstairs until the glue dries.

Step 5: Cutting and Installing the Risers

The stair risers can be made out the laminate floor material to match the treads or they can be something different.  They can be a different style laminate, one solid piece of wood or even tile.  Wood painted solid white is a popular as it contrasts with the color and grain of the laminate.  If you choose to use the laminate floor for the risers as well, follow the steps on Step 4 for the risers, just install them vertically.

If you go with a different material, cut one piece for each riser using the steps from Step 4.  The obvious difference will be you aren’t attaching two panels; it’s just one piece of material.  When attaching the risers, if you’re using nails, make sure to put the nails in an inconspicuous spot.  Ideally the nail head should be covered by the stair nose and molding.

Step 6: Molding

Now it’s time to install the molding.  Pick whatever molding fits your tastes.  You can use a molding to match the same patter as the laminate floor or use a different one.  For our project, we went with white molding to match the risers.  Glue or nail the molding down in a fashion that is consistent throughout the entire stair case.  If you cut the treads and risers correctly, the molding is only used for aesthetics and as accent features.  If your tread and riser cuts are incorrectly cut (which is almost everyone, myself included) the molding can be used to cover up those mistakes.

Pick whatever molding fits your tastes.  My wife and I wanted different molding, so we compromised and got what she wanted (a rectangular piece of pine, pre-painted white with a size of 1x3).

Since I made a bunch of bad cuts when making the treads and risers, I'll be putting molding up and along each side of each tread and rise up the entire staircase to cover up my mistakes and keep it looking uniform.

Measure and cut each piece of molding individually since each step will slightly differ in size.

Measure the "vertical" molding pieces (the pieces that will run parallel with the risers) and used the T-bevel to get the angles correct (since they won't be a perfect 90 degrees, just like the treads and risers).  After cutting along these measurements, nail them into place.  Do this for both sides of the riser.

Then measure the "horizontal" molding pieces (that will run parallel with the treads) and used the T-bevel to get these angles correct.  For uniformity's sake, I  had the horizontal moldings rest atop the vertical moldings on each step.  You can do this, or vice versa, or if you're really motivated, make 45 degree cuts, but that's very hard, and since I'm going to paint the molding white anyway, I opted for an easier cut.

Use the T-bevel to get the angles right

All my "horizontal" moldings rest flush atop the "vertical" ones

Now nail the horizontal moldings in place.I did this for each step so all the gaps along both sides of the staircase were covered by molding.

After getting all the side molding in place, it's time to cover up the corner where the tread meets the riser for the next step up.  Use a small piece of molding; small enough to barley cover up any nail head or gaps.  This piece of molding will take up valuable "stepping" space on the treads and you'll want it to take up as little "stepping" space as possible.

Nail or glue it in place (I used glue so I wouldn't have to worry about unsightly nail holes to be filled in later).

Repeat this process for each step in the staircase.

Step 7: Stair Nose

The stair nose is the piece of material that covers the corner where the riser and the tread on the next step up meet.  It protects both of these edges.  Some stair noses come pre-made and just need to be cut to length and installed.  If this is the case for you, follow the manufacture's instruction for their stair nose.

If you're like me and accidentally purchased a laminate that is being discontinued, matching stair nose was not available for purchase.  So I made my own instead out of 3/4" Oak corner guard.

Measure the distance across the tread were it meets the riser and cut the stair nose to length.  It should fit snugly between the molding to the sides.

Run a bead of glue along the inside of the stair nose and push it firmly into place.  Hold it there until the glue "grabs" the surface you're gluing it to.  Some adhesive will probably seeped out the sides.  Clean it up with a wet rage.

Alternatively, you can nail the stair nose into place, but you'll have to go back and fill those unsightly nail holes.

Do this for each step as well.

After doing it for each step, your project should look like this:

Step 8: Finish Touches

Wait for any glue to dry before beginning this step.

Use and hand sander, sanding block (or carefully use a small power sander) to level out any surfaces that don’t line up with adjoining parts (if you were diligent when making your cuts, this will not be necessary).

Take a hammer and center punch and tap in any nail heads that are sticking up until they are flush (or preferably) below the surface of the material they are holding down.

Once all the nail heads have been tapped in, fill they areas above the nail head with wood putty or caulking to smooth out and level the surface (On surfaces that have a wood grain use putty, use caulking on opaque color surfaces). 

Use wood putty that best matches the laminate or wood’s color.

Use caulking to fill any gaps that exist between the stair’s pieces.  They will typically be between pieces of molding, or between molding and the treads/risers. I used white caulking since my risers and molding are also white.  Clean is another good choice.

Run a bead of caulking through these gaps and smooth out with your finger.  Use a wet rag to wipe up the excess so the caulking only exists in the gaps and not on any surfaces

If you are going to do any painting, allow the caulking to dry before painting.

After this step, your project is complete and the final product will look like this:

Enjoy your beautiful new stair case!