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.

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.

How thick is the piece you are considering tacking on to the front of the tread ? Even 40mm glued ( decent construction glue ) and screwed ( 75 - 100 mm screws ) won't go anywhere in a hurry I can assure you.



I'd also get a half decent carpenter to do all the prep timber work. Carpetlayers don't make very good wood workers.

Stewie

As far as how thick the additional bullnose piece would be I believe the thickest would be 32 mm.
Have you seen anyone do this type of construction before for inset carpet?

Well when I was building I remember doing a few add-ons to steps usually as part of a reno for split level homes so there were three to four steps. We bullnosed a piece of 30mm Maple and curved it so the steps had a shallow curve 80-100 mm to the front. As far as I know they are still there.

Stewie