Adding hardwood to existing stairs

The staircase in my house has plywood steps with carpeting. I'm thinking
of having someone remove the carpet and install hardwood. Is there anything
wrong or problematic about installing plank hardwood on top of the plywood?
Will this work and be durable?

It will work and be very durable. I did mine about 8 or 9 years ago and it
is still in great shape. Carpet on stairs wears and gets ratty long before
the rest of hte house.

I'm looking at Bruce hardwood flooring. At Home Depot, in the section where
they have Bruce hardwood flooring I notice that they matching "stair noses"
but they are around $19.50 each. If there are 14 steps total, then that
would be $273 for just the "stair noses" (yikes!). Is it important I use
these specific "stair nose" pieces or is there some rounded peace could add
on top the existing nose (or would using anything other than those "stair
nose" pieces be a mistake in terms of durability?

Use the right pieces. They will have the proper tongue and groove to match
the rest of the flooring, and have the proper overhang, etc. Anything less
will look makeshift at best. If I had to fabricate the sections from
hardwood, I'd charge you more that $19.50 each. You can do better than
Bruce flooring also. Take a look at a few other brands.

There is a maximum height. If you put the wood planks on all stairs, they
will remain in relationship to each other. What goes on the top of the
stairs? In my case (split entry), I ran the flooring right across to the
kitchen . Everything remained in the same plane that way. There is also a
limit as to how much a step can vary from the others, but I don't recall
what that dimension is.

3/16" according to 1999 BOCA.

Does anyone know what the maximum height of each step should be? (I live in
NJ)

JY

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