stair bullnose

Hello,
Thanks for all your help in advance

Currently we are redoing our stairs. They were initially open stairs that were completely carpeted with iron balusters

We wanted to close them up and use false treads on both ends of each real tread, then place carpet in the middle that would end up being flush with the false treads

Due to the nature of the stairs the risers needed to be in the front of the real treads and thus the tread could not overhang the new riser. There is a squared edge as seen in the pic

Our thought was to add a bullnose piece to the end of squared edge so that carpet would be able to flow over. I was told by the carpet guy that we cannot add this piece as it is likely to break. What he would like to do is place 1/2" plywood on top of the riser (thus making it flush with the false treads on the size) that would overhand the tread and then put carpet on top. This would mean that the carpet would not be flush with the false treads but be thicker (possibly an inch when accounting for the padding)

Other people have told us that with glue and nails that bullnose piece will not possibly break. Certainly they sell bullnose additional pieces for this very reason I think. So the questions are, can we use these pieces and will they hold up over time.

If any one has any suggestions or experience with this, your help would be much appreciated.

First off to House Repair Talk!

Your pic didn't work, you can attach it to a post if you scroll down on the thread reply page to manage attachments.

Here is the updated pic. Thanks

This could be very common I don’t know but I don’t think I have ever seen it done like this. When I see carpet run down the center I think it’s always standing above the treads I know they sometimes just use the hard wood at the edges to give the illusion it runs under the carpet. I guess that’s what look you are going for. If you do add a bullnose to the front it’s going to have to be pretty thin and held back the thickness of the carpet. I don’t know but I think the transition when the carpet rolls over the front will leave a little of the fake bullnose sticking out. As to attaching a little strip to the front with wood glue and screws or nails I don’t see that ever falling off if done properly. You might have to make the strips yourself.

I would have added a spacer to the back of the tread but now that's done I would add the nose. Pre-drill and screw every 6 inches and add glue. By adding plywood now you would be creating a tripping hazard on the top and the bottom as all rizers want to be the same within a quater inch..

I don't think you would need the 1/2" ply as the carpet guy suggested, and it sounds like that is not what you want. For the bull nose I haven't seen that before. If you couldn't find something I would recommend a couple options. If you have a table saw you could buy a closet hanging rod and cut it in half thus creating 2 pieces you could use as a bull nose. Another option would be simply taking some solid pine ripped into a square rod, and attach it to the inside or the real tread and take a bullnose router bit and run it across there to make a bullnose. Either way I would use a solid wood, screwed and glued to the front to make that bullnose, and it will be more than strong enough, even in this high traffic area. Be sure to pre drill where the screws will be so there is no cracks, since it would be small pieces of wood screwed into the edge of the stair tread. If you don't understand this please let me know what I need to elaborate on or explain better.


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