Trim is matched by run for the same reason tile is sorted into shade and calibre lots.
Trim and stairs
A floor has to be finished everywhere it stops, and a step has to be capped with a piece made to be stood on. This guide names the pieces PORCEMALL stocks, the situation each one answers, how to measure a staircase, and why trim goes on the same order as the floor.
Download as PDFThe trim pieces
Trim is not decoration. Each piece answers one problem: an open cut edge, a change in height, or a step underfoot.
T-MOULDING
Joins two floors that finish at the same height. It sits in the gap, covers both cut edges and lets each floor move. The doorway piece when the thicknesses match.
REDUCER
Steps down to a lower floor. One side rests on yours, the other slopes to the surface next door. It removes the lip a thickness difference leaves, and it goes on the higher side.
END CAP
Finishes the floor where it stops against something that is not another floor. A door track, a hearth, an exterior threshold. One finished edge and nothing on the far side.
STAIR TREAD
Caps the step. One piece the depth of the step, front edge already shaped, so a step takes one piece instead of a tile plus a separate nose.
FLUSH STAIR NOSE
Wraps the front edge and finishes level with the floor behind it, so no ridge catches a toe. The overlap version sits on top instead, for when the floor cannot be cut back.
Which piece your edge needs
Walk the job and write down every place the floor stops. Each one falls into a short list.
| What the edge does | Piece |
|---|---|
| Two floors meet at the same height | T-moulding |
| Your floor is higher than the one beside it | Reducer |
| The floor stops at a track, a hearth or a threshold | End cap |
| A step needs covering, front edge included | Stair tread |
| The step is covered, the front edge is open | Flush stair nose |
| A tile edge is exposed on a curb or a niche | Bullnose tile or metal profile |
Cannot tell a reducer from a T? Put a tape on both floors at the doorway before anything is ordered.
Measuring a staircase
Stairs are counted piece by piece, never by area. Start with the risers, the vertical faces. The number of treads is normally one less, because the top riser lands on the floor above. Walk the flight and confirm it.
WIDTH
Wall to wall on every step, not on one. Round up and order to the widest, because a tread can be cut down and not stretched.
DEPTH
Front to back on the walking surface, overhang included. It decides whether one piece covers the step or the tread is made up from two.
OPEN ENDS
A step open on one or both sides needs those ends finished. Say so when you order, because it changes the piece.
Winder steps, the pie shaped ones in a turn, are measured one at a time on their longest edge. Treads are counted per step and trim in linear feet, so neither converts from square feet the way the field does.
Why the nose goes first
A bullnose tile and a purpose made tread are not the same thing. A bullnose is a field tile with one edge rounded and glazed, laid at the front of the step with plain tile behind it. A tread is one piece made for the job: full step depth, front edge shaped, and on many lines a grip texture along the nose.
That front edge is the part of a staircase that fails first. Every footfall lands there, on an outside corner exposed on two faces at once, with the weight of the step going through a narrow strip of it.
So grip belongs on the nose before anywhere else, and a stair is rated on the ramp under DIN 51130 like any other floor. A bullnose step also puts a grout joint in that busiest line. It works, and it is one more joint to keep clean.
Carpet, slab and the door
Three transitions come up on nearly every job.
TO CARPET
Carpet is stretched over a gripper strip and finishes higher than a plank. Your floor still needs its own closed edge, and the carpet needs something firm to tuck against: an end cap or a carpet reducer.
TO A SLAB
Bare concrete, a patio slab or an old poured floor is rarely level with yours and moves on its own. Finish with a reducer or an end cap and leave the two separate. A rigid piece bridging both will crack.
AT AN EXTERIOR DOOR
The floor stops at the track, not under it, and an end cap closes it. What goes outside is a separate decision, because it lives in the weather: frost resistance under ISO 10545-12 and wet grip both apply.
All three normally sit under the closed door, out of sight from either room.
Order trim with the floor
Trim is made from the same run as the floor it matches. The plank and the nose are printed from the same faces, pressed from the same body and finished in the same lot. That is the whole reason they look alike. Order the nose three months later and it comes from a later run.
So count trim on the first order. Add the doorways, the steps and every edge that stops against something else. Only some product families in the catalogue carry matching accessories; the rest get a bullnose or a metal profile, which is worth knowing before you pick the floor.
The field turns square feet into boxes. Trim does not; it is linear feet and steps.
What the grout joint does, how wide it runs, and every edge a floor produces.
Wet grip is rated on the ramp, and it matters on the nose before anywhere else.
Common questions
Can I cut a plank down and use it as a stair nose?
No. A cut plank leaves a square edge over the drop with nothing holding it down. It chips and it flexes underfoot. A nose wraps the edge and fixes to the step.
Reducer or T-moulding?
Measure both finished floors at the doorway. Same height is a T-moulding. Different heights is a reducer, laid with the slope running down to the lower floor.
Is a bullnose tile enough for a staircase?
It is a normal way to build a tiled step and it works. You get a two piece step with a grout joint in the busiest line on the stair. A tread avoids that, when the series offers one.
Can I order more trim later if I run short?
You can, but it comes from a different run and may not match the floor already down. On a nose, at eye level on every step, a small difference shows.
What finishes a tile edge when there is no matching trim?
A bullnose tile if the series has one, or a metal profile set under the tile so its leg covers the cut. Both are drawn in grout and trim.
Ask which floors carry trim
Matching accessories are listed on the product page of every floor that has them. Take your doorway and stair measurements to the store and put the trim on the same order as the floor.