Hardwood flooring at top of stairs

[Scott]

Has anyone installed hardwood flooring and had to deal with the top of a flight of stairs? I've laid hardwood in the past with great success but I haven't had to deal with stairs before. My question is how do I secure the pre made bull nose piece? It has a flat edge so I don't think the floor nailer will secure it well. Do I just use construction adhesive? Will that be enough to hold it. I don't want to use screws through the top because then I will need to plug them.

Does anyone have any advice?

Thanks Scott

[B A R R Y]

Just did it... Did it for a living 20 years ago.

Hide the nails under the baseboard or shoe. It's OK to have some sort of molding on the top step, even if it's only on the hallway side. If your floor nailer won't get close enough to the side, use a

15 ga. finish nailer or hand driven finish nails. The edge that hangs over the last riser can be attached from below or allowed to float.

Have fun, don't get hung up on the view from you knees. Look at the floor from a standing position...

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[Bolisk]

I had this same problem but I had no walls with molding to cover the surface nails with. I had to do some detail work with a router to get the hardwood floor to meet flush with the base molding of the banster which was attaced to the subfloor. At any rate, I used Bostik's Best Hardwood floor glue (can be user for solid hardwood according to bostik) and glued the stair nose peice down first. I then inserted and glued a spline (a.k.a. slip toung) in the grove on the back of the stair nose so that I could reverse the direction of the installation and work away from the stairnose peice. (Note: I put the stairnose peice in first.). Then I used the standard floor nailer to nail the stairnose peice (through the spline) to the subfloor. Note: I waited for the glue on the stainose peice to fully cure before nailing and continueing. This process left a very clean and highly durable finished product.