The stairs *should match the "public" area flooring (as in the main living area floors). If the upstairs is for bedrooms and games room, this would be considered "private" (for the homeowners). If the main floor is the "public" area (living room, kitchen, dining, etc) then the stairs going UP should match the main floor flooring. The reason: the stairs are visible to the public and therefore they should match the public area floors. Now for tiles in the upstairs area. This is not common but it has been done. It takes extra work (and extra materials = extra money) to get this to work over wood-joist construction. The subfloors will have to be assessed for deflection rating. I'll assume they rating isn't good enough for tile (tile is VERY HEAVY and requires very STIFF/thick subfloor). That means you'll need another layer of plywood over top. That plywood will change the height of the subfloor at the TOP of the stairs...which can mess up the stairs themselves (according to code). And then you have to add the tile which can often add as much as 3/4" height - which can again mess up the top step which messes up the stairs yet again. And then we get into the "tile is loud" concept. It is extremely loud. It transfers noise "up and down" (from upstairs to down stairs) as well as "wall to wall" (down hallways, into the bedrooms, etc). To deal with the noise and echo, you could be looking at changing the doors to solid core (expensive proposition depending on how many doors you have). And if you find the noise transfer TOO much (up to down) then you may have to rework the ceiling on the main floor (pull it down, stuff it with acoustic insulation, replace ceiling with acoustic drywall, etc). You can see the $$$$ signs flying out the window. Please look at the upstairs as a part of the whole home. Ask yourself how big your MAXIMUM budget is (once all the bills are paid = includes labor as well). And then find out if it can handle the "extras" such as new subfloor and possibly a stair case that has to be updated to allow for the extra height at the top of the stairs (rebuilding stairs is one of the most expensive projects in the building industry). Then make your decision as to whether or not tile on the second floor is a good idea FOR YOU. You are the only one who can answer that question.

@kstewartau87 Yes, the sample boards, no matter the time of day, never looked to me like all the pictures look. I get screen colors vary, time of day, amount of natural light, kind of light bulb...yeah all of that. I was so disappointed when I brought the large samples home and they did not look good at all. I actually chose another color of provenza. Changed my mind at last minute due to a pit in my stomach feeling. Once installed, I was sooooooo happy I went for it despite those samples!! It's beautiful. For me: it does not show footprints bad, does not creek, feels quality under bare foot (but not like real hardwood), does not shot per hair bad. Prior to provenza I had a really dark rich laminate. It showed EVERYTHING and just the dog hair alone i was sweeping multiple times a day. Footprints anywhere light shines in and the water dribbles from my English Mastiff after drinking water were just embarrassing!! So happy I went with my gut!! Seriously. please find my pictures posted 2 years ago in this thread. There are several of my floor in different areas and one of the image that finally made me go back to my gut and install finally mine. Best wishes!

uscpsycho. I haven't re-read this entire post to understand who did your floors. I am in SoCal, and had a reputable flooring store install my engineered hardwood. I wanted the floorboards close enough to the wall so as not to need quarter round, but I planned for tall baseboard. They assigned their "A-team" to do my install since I was obviously a picky person, and they did a great job. But at least here, where people leave their doors open and no one runs a humidifier or de-humidifier, you have to plan for a certain amount of floor movement. Had I asked them for floors like yours butted up against the wall, no way in h*** would they have installed them like that. They are professionals and would not risk the unhappy outcome. What did you specifiy for your installers? Are they licensed, etc? Where are you located? Hardwood requires humidity/de-humidity and environmental controls. What you're asking is kind of an after-the-fact question. Do you want your floors corrected to be installed according to industry standards and best practices? I would. p.s. I'm not a pro. SJ Mcarthy, etc, please take over the responses now.

We have hardwood on our main floor and LVP on our stairs down to the basement as well as on the basement floor (over cement). When the LVP was first installed on the stairs (it's been a little over a year now), my husband thought the "lip" part of the stair treads (the bull-nosed edge piece) was not installed perfectly flush and secure on several (I think 4) of the treads, so I wonder if that is not uncommon and is what your flooring contractor is worried about. I didn't even notice it, but my husband is a perfectionist and it bothered him. Rather than complain and have the installers come back to address the issue, my husband fixed the issue himself. I think he used tiny little nails (with no heads) to better secure the edge pieces to the adjoining LVP pieces, and I used dots of acrylic paint from my art supplies to cover the bitty nail holes. We have never had a problem with them since and we are up and down the stairs many times daily so they get heavy use. Just wanted to mention our experience in case that makes any difference for your decision. I don't regret using it on our stairs. We picked an LVP that coordinates pretty well with our upstairs hardwood in color, just a little more rustic which fits our basement vibe. We didn't want to introduce yet another type of flooring just for the stairs.