could u build a stair case on top of the floor without messing the floor up?
what you have a laminate question or a stair case question
no. the weight of the stringer's will push down and flex the Laminate flooring especially if there is padding below it, just line up the stringer's trace where they will touch the floor, then add 3/8 or 1/2 (your floor thickness) to the rear of the traced line, subtract same from the front of the traced line (compensating for the thickness of floor)
yep where there is a will ther is a way. I do carpentry and ever-thing I do is perfect(and anything thats not there is always an easy fix) So for a floating floor that doesnt float of the steps scribe a pattern for each step and cut it tight and snap it in as for a finished look on the nose, rip your floor at a 45 using a laminte or solid surface blade(triple chip) then glue up your noses using exopy(epoxy is strong and fast drying) Once the tread is snaped in to place cut a lenght for your nose, apply exopy and then apply to the tread. Build a jig to apply square pressure keeping the nose from dropping or moving away from the tread and weight it down with all those books you aren't reading. Viola you have tigh fitting, nonslipping, glueless, laminate flooring. Oh yeah and if you dont want to spend the time to be a perfect carpenter just glue them, then when you are ready to pull them up come on yahoo answers and ask how to refinish a floor.
Not a smart idea. The whole idea of a floating floor (another term for glueless laminate) is that the floor moves as it expands and contracts with temperature changes. That's why you have to leave a quarter inch gap around the parimeter when you lay the floor. Fastening anything permanent to the floor will limit that movement and eventually cause the floor to buckle. Always best to do it right the first time instead of cutting corners. Happy staircase building, I don't envy you!
The laminate floor floats, that is it's not glued down to allow for expansion. If you attach your stringers through the floor, you may create buckling of the floor during periods of expansion. it would not be a prblem to cut out just enough flooring (including 1/8 for expansion) to accomodate the stringers.
