Laminate flooring transition to hardwood stair and sill plate
Mart10
| Posted in Construction Techniques on
I am planning to replace my upstairs carpet with a laminate floor. I have two questions on making a safe and professional transition to my top stair and sill. My open staircase has 3/4″ thick oak stair treads and sill plate. See attached photo. The total thickness of the laminate floor with underlayment will be 1/2″ thick.
1. Is 1/4″ plywood the best choice to add to my subfloor so the laminate matches the top of stair tread and sill plate?
2. Do I need to allow for expansion on the laminate end pieces that will butt up to the stair tread? Concern is having a large gap or transition piece that could be a trip hazard.
Replies
Instead of 1/4 in. plywood, I'd look at one of underlayments intended for laminate floors. Finding one that's 1/4 in. thick should be no problem.
Thanks Andy. Found cork rolls at 1/4" thick. Good suggestion. A lot easier to handle, cut and install.
Cool. That's what I did with some engineered wood flooring in our Airbnb. Adds a little give to the floors, too.
If you are concerned with the transition, you might want to consider updating the top step (on the floor level)
either replace that first, narrow strip of oak with a full depth oak step, or extend the laminate to the edge of the step, and use a stair nose built for use with the laminate of your choice.
There are a variety of transition solutions sold to handle the transition between oak and laminate that allow for expansion of the laminate.
the edge does have to consider the needs of laminate to have expansion space.
but your existing carpet has quite a bit of transition to the level of that narrow oak strip. a transition to laminate should allow less elevation change than the carpet to oak does.
If the transition you select provides a gradual change, it should be fine with the field of the new laminate floor a few MM lower than that existing oak.
Thanks UM42. With the underlayment (cork + Quiet Walk), the laminate will be flush with the top of step and sill plate. My landing is about 5ft from stair edge to the wall. My plan is to run the flooring vertical and allow for 1/2"+ of expansion against the wall. Therefore I will butt up the other end against the top of stair with a ~1/8" gap. The hope is that the expansion gap at the wall covered by molding will absorb most of the expansion.
The transition that Unc suggests will probably need to run around all your oak stair opening nosing. This will allow the expansion movement of your floating floor.
Edit: and it’s a shame that this is the sensible answer to installing a laminate floor.
Way more work would be to take apart the whole top landing shebang, rails, post, balusters, and existing nose. Lay the floor, then rabbit and mill up the nose (around whole landing opening) to receive the floor. Put it all back together and it looks planned and brand new.
Or it popped in my head....use an undercut saw and run that all around the carpet side of the opening and clean out the area enough to slip your flooring under. Leaving enough wood above so it doesn’t break off. Round it over with a small hand held router and finish to match.
Easy for me to say, sitting around the fire.......retired.
Best of luck.
Thanks Calvin. My issue is that the new flooring will be flush with the top of the stair railing sill plate, therefore I cannot undercut the sill to slide the flooring in. I have seen a contractor install end cap molding between the sill plate and laminate to allow for side to side expansion. Any recommendations?
I don’t have any ideas but planning like you are doing is a good way to start. Beats the heck out of starting, going like crazed addict and then stopping to figure what am I going to do now.....
On my jobs that where the usual just wouldn’t work....I’d start by cutting up some pcs/ parts and play with them to figure the steps I wanted to get to, to achieve the best results.
The closest to yours was a floating floor that we ran up to the entry door/hall juncture. No stock trims would work well so I used a similar wood species and made up the transition, stained to match. I guess it was a similar situation, except we only had to picture frame the 2 sides where it had to slightly lip over the tile too. At any rate, see what you can do with something you make up or modify from a stock trim that makes it perfect!
Because, “ perfect is close enough for this job”. — Miles Overholser.
And don’t forget to come back here and show us. Might help someone else.
https://www.google.com/search?q=laminate+to+oak+transition+T+molding
There are quite a few options, including solid oak or other wood moldings, or a laminate-specific trim that mounts to a U profile extrusion that is fastened to the floor.
There are some aluminum solutions as well, some printed to look like wood.
Be aware that some of the moldings sold to match laminate flooring are not really the same material as the flat flooring, and will wear faster than the flooring. not a huge issue, but you will notice it after fifteen years or so, earlier if there is a lot of traffic wearing street shoes.