What to do with a square-edged living room step?

Rover4

Greetings Fellas,

The question...in preparing for new carpet installation, what should I do with the top square edge of this step leading from the entry way tile floor up to the living room floor?

Background...I'm preparing for new carpet installation in my living room. Following the advice I received here, I replaced parts of my damaged 5/8" T&G subfloor and I'm about to lay down 1/2" plywood on top of the subfloor to - A: Stiffen up the floor (final result will be 1-1/8" thick), and B: Use a few roofing shingles in the valleys in between the 5/8" and 1/2" to "flatten - not level" the resulting floor. From the pictures attached, walking in through the front door leads to a tile entry way. There's a 5.5" step up from the tile floor to the living room floor. Currently this 5.5" step has a vertical (90-degree) face. Is that good? Or should I do something nicer/different/fancy with the edge like set my top sheet of 1/2" plywood back from the face by a half inch and install a piece of 1/2" quarter-round molding to round off the edge?

Or cut back and remove part of the subfloor and install a few pieces of 1" oak bullnose stair tread (I'll keep the finished height in mind and build accordingly)?

Should the edge/face of this step be vertical as opposed to having a 0.75"-1.5" overhang like a stair tread?

Thanks for your feedback.

-Dave

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Bud Cline

If it was me (and it's not) I would either chamfer that edge (45) or put a radius on it as you suggest.

DexterII

Well, there are certainly a lot of people smarter than me, but if the existing floor has that many dips and doodles in it, I believe that I would leave the shingles on the roof, and use 3/4" T&G instead of 1/2". If you can't live with that extra 1/4", I'd pull what is there, and then got with the 3/4 T&G directly on the joists.

Rover4

Thanks Bud, I'll probably do as you said. It'd be an honor to be you. I very much value the experience you bring to this forum.

Dexter, that's the drill I did with the upstairs master bedroom. Due to whatever happened to this house over the years, two floor joists were bowed somewhat awful. Pulled up the subfloor, planed and shimmed the joists accordingly, and now things look pretty darn flat with the exception of where the new subfloor meets old. There's a 1/4" gap that I knew I'd end up with, hence the shingles I want to place between the subfloor and underlayment.