Let me know how this works out. I hope to redo the floors in my house--replacing wall to wall with hardwood, or laminate. I prefer hardwood. Are there treads and nose pieces available for covering the complete stair?

As for laminates---How good are they? I like the look and feel of wood. Is hardwood a better product?

__________________
1982 300SD " Wotan" ..On the road as of Jan 8, 2007 with Historic Tags

Over the years I've mostly used solid unfinished hardwood and finished it myself. However, I've put down some inexpensive Sam's Club laminate the last couple of years. I started using it in a basement over concrete because hardwood wasn't possible. The finish on the laminate is far superior to anything I could put on hardwood myself. But the same would probably apply to prefinished hardwood. The problem with prefinished hardwood from a landlord's point of view is that it's simply for me to repair damaged finish if it did it myself--just stain and polyurethane. But repairing prefinished hardwood invisibly seems very difficult.
Laminate looks as good as hardwood but does not have the feel of hardwood underfoot. But laminate can probably be installed in a third of the time for about a third of the cost. It can also be replaced quickly, unlike hardwood which is fastened to the floor.
From what I have read, there is stair nosing for both hardwood and laminate that can be retrofitted for stairs designed for carpet. The nose of the stair must be cut off. However, you have to make up the tread from the material. In my case, probably one single piece of laminate would cover the tread. I also probably have enough left over oak hardwood I could use with oak stair nosing if I wanted to finish the stairs myself.

__________________
1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13