Stair Tread Nosing

In order to explain what stair tread nosing is and what nosing is we’ll briefly describe some parts of the stairs.

A set of stairs will have several parts. The stair tread is the part of the stair your foot goes on. The vertical part of the stairs, the part between each stair tread, is called a riser. Sometimes the riser is left out to create an open look, or simply to save costs, for example on cellar stairs where looks may not be important. The part of the stair tread that sticks out beyond the riser, which protrudes over the riser below, is called the nose or nosing, because if you look at it from the side it does stick out like a nose. The stringer boards (sometimes just called stringers) are the structural member of the stairs that supports the treads and risers.
Stair tread nosing is stair tread that covers the nosing and possibly part of the rest of the tread as well. On some stairs they may cover just the end of the tread as their may be no nose for various reasons including some building codes. Reasons for using stair tread nosing include:

1) Safety – they provide a non slip surface

2) Stair protection – especially in high traffic areas

3) Stair renovation – for covering worn stairs with a cost effective non slip substance

Of course it will often perform two or more of the above.

There is stair tread nosing available for concrete, tile, poured concrete, tile, and steel pan stairs at a minimum.

Let’s look at some popular example.

One example is Amstep Products 200 series designed for medium to heavy pedestrian traffic. They are made of a high strength aluminum alloy (6063-T6), suitable for both indoor and outdoor use, and suggested for use with concrete (both poured and precast), steel pan cement filled, wood, or terrazzo stairs.

They range from 1 3/8 to 4 inches wide and some models have a 1 1/8” lip. They come in a variety of colors including black, tan, green brown yellow, red and more.

Another example is Amstep Products 700 series designed for stairway renovations, originally designed to handle the rigors of mass transit stairways. Not surprisingly they withstand severe impact and extremely heavy traffic. They range from 4 to 11 inches wide, some models have a lip, and they also come in multiple colors. Their surface consists of a non slip resistant substance which is bonded to a heavy duty extruded aluminum base.

One last example of a stair tread nosing is American Safety Tread’s cast stair nosings. They come in several styles including for poured concrete or terrazzo stairs, steel pan concrete filled stairs, poured stairs, and a heavy duty style for the edges of loading docks and other areas that receive severe punishment. They come in a choice of metals including aluminum alloy and cast iron and more. They come in different widths and have a number of different anchor options, including for existing concrete stairs.

American Safety Tread also makes an array of extruded nosing designed to be fully embedded in the substrate, usually cement or concrete.