ᐅ Cladding Concrete Stairs with Tiles, Vinyl, or Wood Flooring?

Hello everyone,

The general contractor is asking us to choose the thickness of the stair covering so they can plan the concrete staircase accordingly.
They said that if we use wood, the stair covering would be 5 cm (2 inches) thick, while tiles would be about 1 cm (0.4 inches).

We like the wood look, but the price difference is very high (an additional cost of 9,000 EUR compared to tiles for 48 straight steps).

I’m wondering why there is such a large price difference. Is it because of the material cost due to the thickness difference, or the installation effort?

Do we really need to use such a thick stair covering for parquet/wood? Couldn’t we just install regular parquet (or vinyl) directly on the concrete stairs since the concrete itself is already stable?

Then you can make the stair treads with wood-look tiles.

hanghaus2023 schrieb:

Then you can make the stair treads with wood-look tiles.

Sure, but wood-look tiles look a bit odd next to real hardwood flooring or even vinyl flooring.

The general contractor probably means solid wood block steps, not covering them with parquet, as that is not 5cm (2 inches) high.

Costruttrice schrieb:

The general contractor probably means solid wood block steps, not just covering with parquet flooring, which is not 5cm (2 inches) thick.

It seems I missed your response for a long time.

Thank you for the clarification. I thought both were the same. Does this mean we can buy any engineered wood flooring and simply install it on the stairs? In that case, the costs would be similar to tiles (assuming the material costs for tiles and wood flooring are the same), right?

Bayernbors schrieb:

Thank you for the clarification. I thought they were the same thing. Does this mean we can buy any engineered wood flooring and simply install it on the stairs? In that case, the costs would be similar to tiles (assuming the material costs for tiles and wood flooring are the same), right?

@Bayernbors
We ordered extra wood flooring specifically to install it on the stairs as well, to have a consistent look. We consulted with a specialist retailer, and they said either you have to miter cut the pieces and join them at the edges, or use special stair nosing that matches the flooring—some manufacturers offer these, but not all.
Our carpenter actually wanted to find “matching wood” to our flooring and cover the stairs with that, but for me it’s really important that there’s no visual break or change at the transition, because similar does not mean identical. Also, the height wouldn’t work out for us anymore.
Therefore, the carpenter plans to miter cut the edges, as he also thinks the stair nosing is expensive. However, fitting the steps is more labor-intensive than regular floor installation. I can’t say how much extra it will cost yet.