Skip to Content

Can You Put Engineered Wood Flooring on Stairs? (How To)

Stairs are often overlooked but they offer a great chance to make a difference in how your home looks. The right kind of flooring can take a boring staircase and make it something stunning and beautiful.

Engineered wood can be put on stairs, but you need to be prepared to work relatively hard. However, as long as you plan the installation well, you can put engineered wood on the stairs yourself. 

wooden clean stairs

This kind of project will take effort and time, but it’s not impossible. With engineered wood on your stairs, you’ll upgrade it to an area that looks timeless and elegant or modern yet classy.

Should You Put Engineered Wood Flooring on Stairs?

wooden clean stairs

Although the idea of engineered wood flooring on stairs sounds great, you won’t be faulted if you’re wondering if it is a good idea. 

There are several factors to keep in mind when you plan to install engineered wood flooring on your stairs. It can be a time-consuming task, and you will have to remove the carpeting if there is any currently installed.

Once you’ve removed the current carpeting and padding, you will have to give the stairs a thorough clean. Also, it’s very important you have all the right tools and the new wood flooring close to the stairs for easy access.

Measure everything as you proceed to make sure you won’t have to redo anything later on.

What Tools Do You Need to Put Engineered Wood Flooring on Stairs?

tools for stairs

You will have to get your hands on several tools so your project can be done with ease and without any delays or hiccups. A smooth project depends on easy access to tools and equipment, after all.

You will need many tools like safety glasses, a circular saw, a tape measure, and flooring glue for this project. Additionally, you may need a utility knife and a vacuum will certainly come in handy.

You will also need pliers, gloves, a jigsaw, stair risers, a hammer, a nail set, stair nosing, and wood putty.

What Preparations Do You Need to Put Engineered Wood Flooring on Stairs?

man cutting the wood for stairs

For your project to be one that works out well, you will have to keep a few things in mind. For one, the stairs must all be solid and level before you start installing the new flooring.

You will have to remove any currently installed carpeting and padding as well as clean the stairs very well before you can install the engineered wood flooring with success.

How to Put Engineered Wood Flooring on Stairs

confused man standing

Putting new engineered wood flooring on your stairs will take effort and time, but once you’re done, you’ll have a gorgeous area that enhances the look and feel of your home. It’s going to be a bit of a difficult project, but it can be done by DIYers that don’t want to leave home renovations to others.

Copyright protected content owner: ReadyToDIY.com and was initially posted on January 4, 2023.

To put engineered wood flooring on your stairs, you’ll have to remove any existing carpeting and padding. You’ll then have to properly clean the stairs and measure the riser and steps themselves. After that, you can proceed to install the new engineered wood.

You’ll have to set aside time to take on this project. Here are step-by-step instructions on how to put engineered wood flooring on your stairs:

Note that this installation uses prefabricated engineered wood flooring.

Step One

First, you need to remove the existing carpeting and padding. For this job, you should wear gloves to protect your hands. Remove the carpeting along with the padding by pulling out any nails and staples that keep it in place. A good pair of pliers will be good enough for this step.

Step Two

Next, put on a pair of safety glasses and proceed to cut the bullnose off the steps. For this, you’ll use a jigsaw as it’s the most effective tool. In case you’re wondering, the bullnose is the rounded part on the front of the steps. It must be cut off so the steps are square with the riser.

Copyright article owner is ReadyToDiy.com for this article. This post was first published on January 4, 2023.

Step Three

Once you’ve removed all the carpeting and padding, you have to clean the steps thoroughly. A vacuum cleaner would be better than a broom at removing all the wood particles, glue, and dust.

Step Four

Now you have to measure the riser on the bottom step of your stairs. You should cut the prefinished stair riser to the right height. A good circular saw would be best for this task. Next, put flooring glue on the back of the riser and place it in the right place. You may want to hammer nails into the corners to secure the riser firmly. This process needs to be repeated until all the stairs have new risers installed.

Step Five

For this step, you have to measure the surface of the bottom step and then cut the flooring boards to the right size with your circular saw. Put flooring glue on the back of the boards and put them on the steps.

Next, use finishing nails to nail the boards into their places. For every second row on every step you install, you can use a piece of scrap wood and a hammer so you can tap the tongue into the groove of the first row.

Again, repeat this process until all the steps are covered.

Step Six

You now have to measure the steps’ width using a tape measure. Now, cut the new bullnose to the right size with your jigsaw. Then, put glue on the back of the bullnose and then proceed to push it into place on the front of the step’s front edge.

To keep everything secure, you should hammer finishing nails into the sides of the bullnose.

Repeat this process for every step and make sure that all nails are hammered until they’re just below the surface but not all the way through.

To hide the holes, use wood putty that you will put into every hole with a putty knife.

Step Seven

You should now be ready to snap the treads of the steps in place over the new risers using adhesive. When this is done, complete the project with the help of finishing nails. Be precise so you don’t have to do it over later.

ReadyToDIY is the owner of this article. This post was published on January 4, 2023.

Let the glue set for at least one full day before you start using the stairs.