Un-Carpeting a Staircase

[Jodi]

I have a pretty good set of directions

on how to do this, but I'm wondering if anyone has any practical experience they'd like to share.

I live in one of those big neighborhoods where there's about 3 or 4 different models of homes, and they were built quickly without any bells and whistles. I want to pull up my carpet and have hardwood and/or laminate stairs. Is it going to be really ugly when I pull up the carpet? I have laminate downstairs, and I'd like the stairs to match, but I'm finding it near impossible to find stairnose for the type of laminate I have (kronotex from lowes)...any suggestions on how to match a stain?

Thanks for any info!

--Jodi

[Edwin Pawlowski]

My stairs were a plywood base and not all that ugly. I stained them and just left them for a couple of years before deciding to re-carpet the house and finish the stairs. Original carpet was well worn and ugly so it had to go.

The problem with cheap laminates is they don't support them with a lot of the extra goodies to make a professional job. I used WilsonArt a few years back and it worked well.

It has proven to be very durable on the stairs and the landing at the top, the most heavily traveled part of the house.

You won't find a stain easily to give an exact match of your present laminate. You may have to blend a couple of get into dyes. The final result will vary depending on the wood you choose. You may do better with a complimentary color of laminate.

You may want to consider engineered hardwood instead of laminate

I have this in my downstairs family room and hallway. It was not available when I did the Wilson Art or I may have done it all this way. You can see the stair nose on the above page.

[nospambob]

[Sacramento Dave]

matched . then put more coats of un-tinted clear . You have to figure out what wood your going to use then experiment with tints. I believe Lowes sells small tubes of tint. You might try to contact the supplier some of them will have stains or aim you in the right direction. I used Varathain Diamond coat clear great stuff, water base.