We’re having our kitchen renovated. One internal door has a small step down into the kitchen. It was a piece of ply screwed down to a wooden subframe and the hall carpet came down over the front edge. It always looked a bit of a mess so we’ve decided instead to make a wooden step and have the carpet stop further back (with a metal carpet strip for us to trip over!).
I’ve got as far as roughly making the new step with some oak. It currently looks like this:
It’s still in two pieces which I’ll edge joint and glue together and in due course it will be stained dark (to match more closely some other wood outside the kitchen).
My question is how to fix it in place. I’m currently thinking of screwing it down along the back edge (holes would be counterbored and plugged) so any movement will be at the front edge. However, I can’t leave the rest of it completely free floating because I think it will wobble slightly and rattle when walked on. Would it be best to screw it with oversized holes to allow a bit of movement (again plugged)? I suppose the other option would be to pin it and hope that the pins give more flex than nails. I could probably fill the pin holes.
Any thoughts on this/other suggestions would be welcome.