Will adding a nosing to stairs help the feel of stairs that are too small.
King_1223
| Posted in General Discussion on
Hello, My aging parents have a house with 9 1/4″ stair treads. They do not feel confidence-inspiring but rebuilding the staircase is out of the question right now. My question is will adding a large stair nosing (1 1/4″) help the stair tread feel better.
Replies
Tough question. How much overhang from the riser do the treads have now?
Code suggests 3/4” min to 1-1/4” max overhang of tread to riser.
Adding to the tread depth makes the tread deeper but does not change the verticals nose to nose dimension.
The max code overhang I think would be to limit the chance of trip hazard going up.
Will increasing the overhang “feel” better going up? If you stay within the code overhang dimension, maybe so.
However, going down I don’t think there would be a difference.
A long long time ago we rented a 2 story farmhouse. The stairs going up were steeper than code as well as the tread depth narrower…..
We quickly learned to go down sideways with a good grip on the hand rail.
Whatever you end up doing to the treads, make sure you provide a sturdy and full length hand rail, perhaps both sides.
Adding more nosing will not bring it up to code nor will it make it more safer. I once told a big football player, it had to be ripped out. He was mad and stomped up the stairs showing how safe it was. I then told him to walked down the steps, i caught him from falling at the first step down.
I have a similar problem at my daughter's house. 9 1/2" treads are quite problematic, especially for big feet like mine. At my daughter's house a nice runner was installed, which was a big improvement for traction as compared to the bare wood treads.
If you have room to extend the run of the stairs at the bottom, and not get into headroom problems, you could have a new set of stairs built, but that would be pricey. Also, the late, great Larry Haun would build stairs with risers that did not meet the treads at 90-degrees to product a wider tread. His goal would be to gain an inch in tread width. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yh6cMQnWGwA