Slimline Square Back Stair Nosing 59x30mm Aluminium, 1m & 2m

A slimline square back stair nosing in aluminium, 59mm across the tread and 30mm down the nose, supplied in 1m and 2m bars. Same fine 2.5mm edge line as our raked-back profile, but finished square at the rear — the version to use when the floorcovering is being laid up to the nosing rather than under it.

Why fitters choose this profile

Square back gives you a clean butt joint. The rear of the tread plate finishes square, so a new LVT, vinyl or laminate floor can be laid tight up against it and the junction reads as a deliberate line rather than a transition. On a new stair, or a refurbishment where the going is coming up anyway, that is the neater detail and the faster one to fit.

A fine edge line, and an honest limit. At 2.5mm gauge this is a lighter extrusion than a heavy-duty nosing, which is exactly what keeps the sightline slim. The trade-off is real and we would rather you heard it from us: it is made for low to medium traffic, and sustained heavy footfall or impact can wear the surface finish back to bare aluminium. Offices, apartment blocks, shops, homes — yes. School corridors and station stairs — specify something heavier and we will point you at it.

Anti-slip performance you can quote in a spec. The insert does the gripping, and the manufacturer publishes pendulum figures for each one: castellated PVC at SRV 76 wet / 85 dry, Olympic Grip at 71 wet / 102 dry, smooth textured at 56 wet / 65 dry. Those are insert test figures rather than a test of your finished stair, but they are real numbers you can put in front of a specifier.

Six carrier finishes, thirty-two insert colours. Mill, satin and polished cover the usual silvers. Black anodised, bronze and light bronze come from the designer range — the bronzes read as aged brass at a fraction of brass money, and they are the reason this profile turns up in hotel and residential work as often as commercial.

Where it is used

LVT and vinyl stairs in offices, apartment buildings and lighter commercial interiors, and timber stairs where the nosing is rebated in to finish flush. For external steps or heavy commercial traffic the manufacturer builds the same profile in mill aluminium with a glass-fibre reinforced (GRP) insert — we do not stock it, but we can quote it.

Specifications

Choosing the right option

Insert first, because it decides both grip and colour. Castellated PVC is the default and the one most jobs end up with: highest wet figure, widest colour range. Smooth textured trades a little grip for a surface that mops clean, which matters in food and healthcare settings. Olympic Grip is an aluminium-oxide surface for the hardest-worked stairs on this profile and costs more accordingly. The aluminium inserts are a design decision, not a grip decision — specify them when you want the whole nosing to read as one piece of metal.

Then the carrier finish. Match it to the ironmongery, not to the floor — that is what makes a stair look designed rather than patched.

Then length and drilling. No Drilling ships a plain bar for adhesive fixing or for drilling on site to your own centres. Drilled Hidden Fix is pre-drilled and countersunk by us so the fixings disappear under the insert — a clean top face, no screw heads, and a job that takes half as long on site. It adds 10%.

Visual contrast. Approved Document M asks for the step edge to be visually distinguishable. Set a light insert against a dark floor, or the reverse, and check the two materials together in daylight rather than on a screen — order free samples if there is any doubt.

Installation, use and care

Fix mechanically with size 6 screws. We do not supply screws and plugs because the right ones depend on your substrate — concrete, timber and screed all want something different. If you ordered undrilled bar, pre-drill and countersink before fixing. The profile can be rebated into timber steps to finish flush, and is designed to abut LVT or vinyl at the nose. Cut with a chop saw and a non-ferrous blade, then deburr the cut end. Clean with warm water and a neutral detergent; keep abrasive pads away from anodised finishes, which cut through faster on a light gauge than on a heavy one.

Frequently asked questions

Ordering and delivery

Choose finish, insert colour, then bar length with or without drilling. Need an exact size? Use our cut-to-size slimline square back stair nosing, priced per centimetre from 700mm to 3200mm. Free samples are available so you can hold the insert colour against your floor before you commit. UK mainland delivery is a flat rate shown at checkout.