I'm in the process of covering my stairs with Phoenix (aka, Artemis, Firebird, Bruce Studio B) Afzelia engineered planks and "Artistic" stair nosing. According to my supplier, the Artistic stair nosing is the best (or perhaps only?) match to my flooring material. However, there are two problems:

* The groove in the stair nosing is wider than the tongue in the plank.

* The stair nosing is 1/32" thinner than the plank.

Unless I shim up the stair nosing, I'm going to end up with a 1/32" offset between the nosing and planks on each step. What is the best type of material to use as a shim? I'm thinking some sort of veneer, but I don't know if I can get it as thin as 1/32". I know it sounds cheesy, but I can locate cardboard that's about the right thickness. Would it be a mistake to use cardboard? What about plastic or other materials?

As for the gap between the tongue and groove, I'm just thinking about squirting a bunch of adhesive into the groove before fitting them together. Would this be sufficient, or should I try to shim out the groove too?

By the way, I'm doing a glue-down installation on the planks, but plan to both glue and nail the stair nose, if that makes any difference.


Thanks,

- Gordon

Hey Gordon,
Aren't those non-matching nosings a pain! I know what your dealing with. Since you are nailing and gluing the stair nosings, using non corragated cardboard to get that 1/32" will work out. Just make sure you use NON-CORRAGATED. After all, cardboard is paper and paper is wood! I've done the very same thing. Once you've found some cardboard that will work, cut it to fit just where the nosing is going. Brush a thin coat of Elmer's yellow or white glue to the wood step and place the cardboard in that. Next use a little construction adhesive on the cardboard and put your precut nosing in place. Use some finish nails (#6) and set. Let the glue dry overnight before stepping on the edge. Sometimes, nailing will draw the nosing down below the surface so be careful. Also, too much glue will not allow the nosing to be set flush so use spareingly. Too bad the tongues and grooves are not a snug fit as this would give the nosing more support. A little yellow glue in the groove couldn't hurt. Wipe up excess before it dries. Good luck!

Thanks, Gary.

I'm contemplating another option:

Rabbet out about 1/4" of the bottom portion of the stair nose and adjoining plank and insert a spline, as show in the figure below. It's much more work, but it might be a better option. Has anyone done this? Is this overkill?

Better still, rip the tongue off the plank that will be next to the nosing. Then using a bisquit joiner, cut slots about 10" apart. Attach the plank and nosing with bisquits (the smallest ones,#10 I think) and yellow glue then clamp to keep the surfaces perfectly flush. When glue is cured (24 hrs.), install as one unit using your floor adhesive; no need for nailing. Yeah, it is overkill BUT it's your house so go for it!

Yeah, I thought about doing that too, but I'd also have to cut the groove off the stairnose so it would be flush with the plank. However, by the time this alternative occurred to me, I had already precut all of the stairnose and planks for the stairs. How to properly fit the stairnose to the adjoining planks was an afterthought, so I'm stuck with my current dimensions.

If I were to do it all over again, I would definately cut the tongue off the plank and groove off the stairnose and join them with bisquits. Hopefully this thread will lay out all of the alternatives for others who haven't progressed beyond the point of no return.