Are people putting this Costco flooring in all levels of homes? I had a salesman almost laugh at me when I mentioned it. Maybe an eager salesman and wanted me to buy the hardwood. But i would like to hear from you folks. I dont want to reduce the value of my new home. I would think this flooring would be a lot better than just having carpet. ?? Please advise as I am ready to get started. Thanks so much.

Karie, I was inspired by what you wrote. Thanks for the input. I too want to do all three floors. How did you learn to do the stairs? Is their info that I could get that would help me. Also did you go from room to room in one continuous flow of the laminate. Where did you get the information telling/showing you just how to do this installation? Also what time of the year do the Costco coupons come out? I called and the gal and she at local Costco store said only once a year and that was in June. She did not really seem to know that much about it. Thanks

Hi Mary,

The actual installation on the floor is very simple, once the underlayment is down, start at one end and work your way across, do a full row before starting the next at the end of the first row, cut your last board to fit then use that board to start your next row, that way, the creases will all be in different places. I did use a continuous floor whenever possible, closets, room changes ect. except my kitchen. The kitchen already had a sealed linoleum on it and had talked with a contractor and decided to lay the laminate right over the top. it worked out great, no underlayment there, it did make the kitchen slightly higher than the dining room though so I used a molding (sorry can't remember the name) but it is put inbetween the two floors and it allows for a very smooth transition from the kitchen to the dining room. It made for challenging floor base moldings though but it was worth it. As for the stairs, I did watch a neighbors video (Shaw Laminate) that gave me the idea of how its done and I talked to a home-depot girl who told me the scoop. do not use underlayment, glue the laminate directly to the stairs they recommended glue call "Liquid Nails" it comes in a tube and you use a caulking gun to put it down. Do it the same way you do the floor except be sure to leave enough space for the stair noses to lay flat on the surface for stability. The challenging part is the get the laminate as close to the edge of the wall as possible, you do not need to leave any gaps as you are glueing, no need for expansion space. I used 14 round in the crease of each stair and a stair nose on the ends. (the stair noses are expensive) no matter where you go. I paid $26 per stair nose, each nose covered capped two stairs... the stairs seemed to be more expensive than my entire floor but it was worth it. It's not slippery to me, but my Chihuahua is a little scared of the stairs, he decided to simply stop using them, which works for us, as he's a runner and this immediately stopped the running out the door problem. My advice is to just go for it, you dont have to be perfect as long as you plan on installing molding, the molding is very forgiving, my istallation looks very professional and I truely am a beginner.

BTW - I product I am using is the Harmonics - Cherry which is the exact same product as Quik-Step U816 - Select Cherry. I've had a dealer compare the two its exactly the same, same box (different name) same underlayment, same warrantee. He was also able to give me the quik-step catalog and I was able to order from him, repair kits, cleaning kits (made especially for our floor) and all the moldings I needed. Just go to the quik-step website and look for your local dealer.

Karie,

Thank you so much for your posting on the installation on staris. I did my entire house (about 800 SQ FT) and have just stairs left to do.

I have been researching for last 2 days about how to install on stairs. I had figured out that I need to glue them down but was unable to order/buy "ShawBond 200" (which is recommended in the video that you watched).

Only difference is that I did leave a gap of 1 3/4 inch on the top of first step from the top of the floor. And my stairs had a lip sticking out (1 1/8 inch) that i had to cut.

But thank you very much for mentioning the liquid nails. The Home Depot flooring expert refused to recommend any glue as flooring was not a Home Depot product.

HI!
I'm using the Harmonics laminate from Costco and don't know where to buy the stair nose that will match. Thanks for the help!

I have put maple flooring from costco downstairs in my house, and was planning to put it on the stairs as well as upstairs.

The problem I'm having is that the laminate is 5/16 of an inch, and the distance fron the bottom of the stair nosing (the flat part that goes aagainst the floor) and the little lip that should touch the top of the laminate trread is almost 7/16 of an inch, leaving a 1/8 inch gap between the laminate and the stairnosing vertically.  I have been assured by the customer service department that they have never had this problem before and that I should just fill the gap with caulking....(yeah right.....)

Im looking at glueing down some 1/8" wood under the laminate only to make it even but this really shouldn't be happening.

any thoughts?